Levi's Cave
by tatakailittleackerman
Summary: Merman!Levi and Human!Eren. Eren trespasses on Levi's underwater cave/home and dirties it up. Ereri mermaid au with mentions of eruri
1. Chapter 1

So my first set of stories is almost done and I'm having trouble deciding on what to write next. I tossing around 4 ideas, so I just decided to write out the first chapter of all of the ideas. This is idea number 2.

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Eren POV

"Armin, you don't actually believe in all that nonsense, do you?" Mikasa asked, peering over his shoulder at the book we were reading.

"Shut up, Mikasa! It's cool and you know it." I huffed, "Who cares if it's real or not?" I looked back to the beautiful mermaids in the book.

"I care, Eren. I don't want you down in the cove looking for imaginary mermaids. Last time you slipped on the rocks you almost drowned!" Mikasa sat down beside me, her scarf out of place on the sunny day. We were all three sitting in the grass just before the cove.

"I can handle myself, Mikasa." Ever since mom and dad disappeared, Mikasa had been acting more and more parental. Maybe it was because we were all alone in the big house just up the lawn, or maybe it was because she had to grow up so fast, but either way, I didn't like it. I was 17 for crying out loud!

"Don't go looking for mermaids in the cove, Eren. If you want to swim, do it on the main beach. The cove is dangerous, what which all those underwater caves. If you slip, there's no telling what may happen." Mikasa tucked her hair behind her ear in the breeze.

I hummed in response and turned the page of the book in Armin's lap.

"Look! There's men, too!" I said. They were beautiful, even more so than the mermaids. I stroked the drawing of a merman with a dark blue tail and eyes and black hair. He was so pretty.

"Eren," Armin laughed. I looked down and realized I had been stroking where the merman's penis should have been and I jerked my hand back. I blushed. Mikasa huffed. Armin kept laughing.

I had recently come out as gay to both of them, and to my surprise, they both had said the same thing. There we were, three homosexual best friends.

"I'm sorry, Mikasa. Would you like me to turn back to the topless mermaids? I saw you eyeing the one with the light-blue tail and perky tits." I teased her. She turned so fast on me her scarf moved from over her mouth. She punched me on the shoulder and I felt the pain jolt through my body.

"Damn!" I rubbed my shoulder. I punched her back, and then it was on. The three of us ran up and down the coast, playing and threatening to push each other into the water.

It hadn't been long before Armin's grandfather came walking down the dock to call Armin back inside. Armin lived in the house closest to us, and we were glad for it. Things were lonely when it was just me and Mikasa. Armin turned and scrambled up to his house. He called out that he would see us tomorrow. He walked up to his grandfather and the old man took off his hat to put on Armin's head. I smiled as they walked away.

"Eren." Mikasa said beside me. I hummed.

"Armin left his book down by the cove. We should be able to run it back to him if we hurry." She suggested.

"We can give it to him tomorrow. I-I'll keep the book in my room tonight." I said.

"Are you going to jack off thinking about that merman?" She asked me point blank.

I blushed. That was exactly what I was planning on doing.

"No! Jesus, Mikasa! It's for safekeeping!" I crossed my arms.

"Whatever." She said. She turn and walked up the hill to our house. I ran back down toward the cove and searched along the grass till I found the golden bound book.

_Mermaids and Merman _was the title. I hugged it to my chest and ran home. Mikasa was in the kitchen starting to cook when I came in.

"Dinner will be ready in a minute." She said. I grunted and walked up the stairs.

"It's fish and chips." She said. I paused. We usually don't have such nice food.

"What?" I called down the stairs.

"Dad's check was bigger this week, Eren."

"Oh. Okay." I heard her clank some pots and pans and went up to my room. I took the upstairs, she took the downstairs. I placed the book on my bed and tugged off my dirty clothes. I threw them into the hamper and headed to the shower. The whole time I showered I thought about where my dad might be. He sent in weekly checks. It was generally enough to pay the bills and buy food and clothes. I had no clue what it is that he did or why his income would be increasing now. I mean, I thought he was a doctor, but doctors didn't disappear for months and months with no word to their two children. I wished I knew more.

I skipped dinner that night, just grabbing a brownie and running back upstairs. Mikasa yelled at me the whole way up the stairs and I knew she would stuff me full at breakfast tomorrow. I was too excited about Armin's book, though. I sat on my bed, munching on my brownie and turning the pages.

_Merpeople are drawn to underwater caves. Typically one merperson or a family of merperson will inhabit one cave and use it much like a human would use a house. They spend a lot of time there, keep their things there and mate there or on the shore closest to there._

Wow! I wondered what kind of things a merperson would have? I wondered if they kept forks like Ariel and thought they were combs or what? I read the whole book that night, some passages sticking out in my mind.

_Merpeople's mating cycles are triggered by the full moon. The full moon causes the merpeople to change temporarily into a human form, during which they mate as humans do. The time this change lasts varies based on the type of merperson and the season. Merpeople made for colder waters stay in human form for a shorter period of time than do the warm water merpeople. This corresponds to the change with the seasons. Merpeople last longer in human form during the warm months than the cold ones. This is because being on land while it is cold is very hard on the merperson. A mermaid also tends to stay in human form longer than a merman, which is to give the mermaid as long as possible to mate before she can no longer do so. So a cold water merman during the winter may only be able to mate for one day, while a warm water mermaid during the summer may be able to mate for up to five or six days. _

…

_A merperson's cave is very important to them, and they will be very territorial over it. This is especially true of a single merman. He may even become aggressive toward humans who frequently visit the cave. On the other hand, elder merpeople tend to be the most welcoming to humans. This is most likely because they have had more experience dealing with humans. Also, cold water mermen, who have the hardest time mating, tend to be the most aggressive. That aggression increases the closer to a full moon it gets. Mermen have been known to run off any merman that comes close to their cave in the hours before a full moon transformation very violently. _

…

_Human and merpeople interaction is shrouded in mystery. Some people claim to have befriended merpeople and some even claim to have mated with them. We have yet to see anything other than antecedent based proof of this. _

…

_Becoming a merperson is a very tricky thing. The only known way to start the transformation is to place a single scale from a merperson's tail under the tongue during the full moon beginning of the mating cycle. The human will go into mating with the merpeople, then, as they come out of it and their tails form back, the human will form a tail and join the merpeople. The best way to do this is to mate with a merperson and use their scale for the change. By forming an intimate bond with the merperson, it helps to guarantee that the new merperson will have a caretaker while they adjust to their new life. _

Wow! I finished the whole book in one night. I started reading at around 7 pm and had read straight through to – I glanced at the clock – midnight! I felt so pumped up! I wanted to meet a merperson more than anything! I slipped on my shoes and swimsuit and cracked open my door. I listened for movement downstairs. Nothing. Mikasa must be asleep downstairs. This was my chance!

My heart was pounding out of my chest and I winced with every creak of the stairs. Damn these old wooden steps. I slipped out of the front door. The warm wind beat against my face and I heard the sea crashing in the distance. I wondered if the mermaids here would be considered cold or warm water dwellers. I thought they would be warm, since it was pretty warm here all the time. I skipped down the path to the shed. I had walked this path many times before, so I could navigate it in the dark easily. I stopped at the shed and pulled out a flashlight.

I didn't light the flashlight until I was officially at the cove. Mikasa had caught me sneaking out one too many times because I had lit up my flashlight before I was out of sight. I knew better now. I felt the slick rocks of the cove and lit my flashlight. I didn't think I would find anything, but if I did, it would be worth it.

Right now, it wasn't a full moon, so I wasn't expected mermaids to be on the bank of the cove, of course. I would have to check in the caves to see if I could find anything. I check the caves on the land first. There were some caves connected to the land that had water in them, but I didn't find anything in there. I would have to search in the actual underwater caves, then. I stripped my shirt and shoes off, keeping on my swimming trunks, and found the place where I entered the underwater caves.

The water was warm right now, and very dark. I flicked on my flashlight and swam towards the first cave. I had been born and raised here in this cove. I knew my way around the caves, no matter what Mikasa said. I didn't visit the caves often, because neither Mikasa nor Armin would visit the caves with me and I disliked swimming alone. I hopefully wouldn't be swimming alone tonight, though.

I searched the first three caves with no luck. I then headed to the biggest cave. This one was my favorite. It was a cave that was only partly underwater. I was coming in the underwater way. Once in, you could climb up a bank directly to the beach of the other side of the cove. The rocks were jagged, so we never played over there. I popped up in there now. I pulled myself up on the cave bank, laying down on the sand and panting. I could hold my breath from cave to cave, but I was exhausted from all the exercise now. I didn't think I was ever going to find a mermaid.

I was so tired. I threw my arm over my face and felt the salty water dripping down into my mouth. I ignored it. So very tired. I relaxed against the bank, the sand feeling so good. I drifted to sleep in the warm, thick air.

_Splash! _

_Splash! _

"Mikasa! Shut up!" I rolled over, breathing in something sharp and hard. I shot awake, couching the mouthful of sand from my lungs. I had rolled over right into it.

I tried to wipe it off my tongue with my hands only to find more sand on my hands. I cried out in frustration, scrambling down to the water. I lowered my head down and slurped up some salt water. I swished it in my mouth before spitting it back out.

My mouth was salty now, but at least it wasn't sandy anymore.

"Oi, brat. Don't spit in my water." I heard a voice warn. I screamed looking up to the beach from the cave. His voice bounced off the cave walls.


	2. Chapter 2

I don't know what I'm doing.

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Eren POV

"Down here, brat!" I heard him sneer. I looked down at the sand.

"What?"

"In the water, damn. Do I have to spell it out?" I looked over in the water. There was a swimmer at the edge of the cave, keeping his distance away from me. He was low in the water, his mouth barely peeking out of the water. What really drew me in was his eyes. They were a hypnotic bright gray. I wanted to see them up close.

"There you go. Now get out." He sounded mad. I crawled down to the water and just let my feet sit in the warmth. I squinted my eyes at him.

"Why?" I asked. I wanted to know why he was so angry.

"Because this is my water, and you are a dirty little brat."

"Why is it your water?" I snapped. He narrowed his eyes and then his head disappeared below the dark water.

"Hey!" I yelled. This guy was an asshole!

I felt something grab my feet suddenly and I screamed. I jerked my feet back and they pulled out of the water along with two pale wrists still holding them. Impossible! There was no way he could have crossed the cave that quickly! His head popped out of the water and he jerked me down. My body slid halfway into the water and his face was very, very close to mine. I rested on my elbows and my back ached with the sudden bending. Those eyes I had wanted to see more of were gazing intensely into mine.

"It's my water because I say it is." He growled. He pressed his nose into my neck and inhaled deeply.

"What the hell! Why are you sniffing me?" I felt the need to get away from him. I twisted my legs and kicked out. My leg brushed something scaly and I screamed.

"Shut up!" He snapped. Something big and gray lifted out of the water behind him and I screamed louder. It snapped forward suddenly, throwing water over us both. I closed my eyes quickly and started coughing up water. I felt something on my neck and I opened my eyes to find him buried in my neck.

"Why are you doing that?" I asked. I was trembling. I should have listened to Mikasa; I shouldn't have come here looking for mermaids.

"I'm curious." He said, as if that explained anything. I felt his warm tongue dart out and lick up my neck.

"What the hell!" He let go of my legs and put his arms on either side of my waist. He pressed his chest against mine.

"You taste weird and you smell weirder." He stated.

"Thanks!" I huffed sarcastically. He cocked his head.

"It's not bad; it's just different." I swallowed. I didn't know what to say. I looked into his eyes for a moment and blushed. He was a very attractive man and I was very gay.

"What's that?" He asked, cocking his head to the side like a puppy.

"What's what?"

"Your face. It's turning red."

"You don't know what a blush is?" I blinked at him. What the hell was happening? He sighed and that big gray thing rose up out of the water again. This time I got a closer look at it. Was that a tail? It dropped back down and I opened my mouth.

"Scream and I will hit you." He warned. "It's just my fucking tail."

"Your tail?" My voice sounded shaky, even to my ears.

He rolled his eyes. "Obviously dumbass."

"You're a mermaid?" I asked.

He narrowed his eyes. "No. I am a merman."

"I-I'm sorry." I was dreaming.

"Nevermind that now, brat, tell me why your face is red."

I blushed harder. He leaned even closer, staring at my cheeks.

"I'm blushing."

"Which is what?"

I bit my lip. I was explaining blushing to a sexy merman who had me pinned down in his cave. I was either dead or dreaming and I wasn't sure which one.

"Just fucking tell me." He sighed. He pushed himself away at arm's length. I saw ripples form behind him from his tail moving back.

"When, um, humans feel," I bit my lip, "embarrassed or uncomfortable, blood rushes to the surface of the skin of their cheeks." He was looking at me so intensely.

"Um, you see, blush is a contraction of blood and rush…" I said.

"You are embarrassed or uncomfortable?"

"Yes. Both."

"Why?" He cocked his head again.

"Because you're kinda, um, really close to me." I looked away from him.

"My proximity makes you uncomfortable?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"Look, can we talk about something else? Talking about it makes it worse." I said, meeting his eyes. "I'm Eren, what's your name?"

I hoped to distract him.

"Levi." He pushed completely away from me and I pulled back up onto the bank. I curled my legs up and hugged them to my chest.

He laid on his stomach on the bank next to me, his tail resting in the water. I saw about two feet of it and leaned closer to it. His gray tail was made up of complex patterns of green tinted gray and blue tinted gray. The scales shimmer and gleamed in the moonlight. I reached a hand out to touch it.

"Don't you dare." His voice was icy.

"I'm sorry!" I went back to hugging my wet legs with both arms. I looked away.

"It's intimate." He said, his voice softer, "To touch tails is only a privilege given to a mate."

"Really?" I turned toward him. "I'm sorry I tried to touch you, then. I didn't know!"

He shrugged. "How could you have known? No big deal."

"Well… I did read a book on merpeople!" I said proudly. I laid down on my back so we could be eye level. He couldn't sit up next to me because of the silky looking fin that rose out of his tail. I wondered if could extend it or tuck it in like some fish.

He raised his eyebrows. "Did you now?"

"I did! It was great!" I was so excited. Dream or not, this was incredible.

"What did you learn?" His voice was playful.

"So much!" I smiled at him. "I don't know how much is right, though, because you're the first merman I've ever met!"

"I can tell. Feel free to ask questions. I asked you about the blushing." He said, propping himself up on his elbows and leaning over a bit.

"Are you warm water or cold water?" I asked.

His eyes flashed. "You did read about us then. I'm cold water." He hummed. "Do you know what that means?"

"It means your parents are from a cold water ecosystem. You're more aggressive than warm waters. I didn't think around here was cold water, though." I said to him.

He narrowed his eyes. "I'm not from around here, brat. But you are right about the aggression."

"So why are you not in a cold-"

"None of your business." He snapped.

"Okay!" I leaned away from him. He was scary.

"Sorry, brat. This is the first time I've met a human that wasn't trying to kill me." He said sadly. I remembered the passage in the book on mermaid hunters. I shivered. Their practices of tracking down merpeople and setting nets in their home caves only to cut their tails off sounded barbaric.

"So…" I said to bring him away from the sad topic, "is this cave your claimed home?"

He nodded. "I have claimed this cave."

"Is that why you don't like me here? Because I'm another male on your territory?"

"Don't flatter yourself, brat. You're no threat to me or my territory." Levi smirked.

"I didn't mean that! Of course I'm no threat. I don't want to hurt you! It's just that I read that cold water mermen tend to run off any males that come in their homes because of competition for girls."

He snorted. "I'm not interested in mermaids, Eren." I wondered what that was about.

"Neither am I, for what's it's worth…" I said.

"You wouldn't mate with one of us?" He asked, cocking his head to the side. Shit, was he offended?

"No! It's not that I have anything against your species. I'm just gay as hell." I said quickly.

He was very quiet. I had to fix the silence, I didn't want to lose my only merman friend. Even if we had just met and this is all a dream. Just my luck, to lose a friend in my own damn dreams…

"So why do you not want to mate?" I asked him, wondering if it was too personal. "Do you not want kids?"

"I never said I didn't want to mate, Eren." He sighed.

"You said you didn't want mermaids – oh! Oh! You're gay?" I laid on my side, propping my head up on my arm.

"For a gay man, you sure as hell have a time figuring out other gay men." He shifted towards me. "That's probably why you're single."

"Maybe…" I whispered. Then I realized what he had said. "How did you know I was single?"

"Your scent is very much your own. You haven't been scented by a mate. You smell so pure that I'd bet you're a virgin, too." Levi said.

I looked away. My face was hot.

"You're doing that thing humans do."

"Let's not discuss my virginity." I tried to smile at him. "I want to hear about you. Can I meet your mate?"

"I don't have one." He hummed.

"Waiting til it's closer to the full moon?" I was glad we were off the topic of my virginity.

"So you read about our mating cycle?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah! It was really interesting."

He leaned forward. "I guess you could say that I'm waiting for the moon, yes."

"It must be hard for you, being a cold water merman. You can't mate as long as the others, can you."

He shook his head. "That is true, but my mating is more… intense."

I blushed hard. He reached a hand out and stroked my cheeks. I gulped. His hands were warm and just a little wet.

"A warm water mermaid would mate, say, 3 times in a day, while I can go and go and go…." He continued. My eyes widened.

"My record is ten times. I mostly average about 7 times. So, with 7 times in one day for 3 days, it's equal to 3 times in one day for a week." I squeaked. Holy shit. Why was he telling me such details?

"Cold waters often form stronger bonds with mates, too. We live in a harsher climate. Us and our young die easier, so we form strong bonds to protect our mates and our young." He stroked my cheeks again.

"I will admit that I miss mating the mating cycle is over. There are ways merpeople make each other feel good, though. We stroke each other's tails and it feels like when I'm in human form and my mate strokes my pe-"

"Whoa there!" I said, loudly. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because it makes you blood rush." He said like it explained everything.

"You can just say blush. Do merpeople not blush?"

He shook his head. "No. When we get flustered, our fins tremble."

My mouth fell open.

"No way!"

He nodded. "Sometimes, if we are really flustered, our gills will wiggle."

"Your gills?"

He leaned head back far and gestured to the exposed flesh of his neck. I sat up and leaned close. There were three parallel slits just under his jaw bone under his ear.

"Holy shit! Can I touch?" I brought my hand a couple inches from his gills. "Or is it intimate?"

"It's a little intimate, but nothing like touching tails." He looked into my eye and I bit my lip.

"Go on, but don't touch too long…" He warned. "I'll get horny."

"Are you sure?" I wasn't sure how I would feel about a sexy, horny mermaid. Was my dream going to end up as a sex dream? It wouldn't surprise me. I had had plenty of them. I was probably still asleep in the cave. I wondered if Mikasa was out looking for me.

"Go on, brat."

I reached out and traced the gills with only my fingertips to start with. He gasped. I pulled back, and he looked at me with dark eyes. I hesitantly put my whole hand on his neck. The gills were warm and wet. I massaged them with my fingertips, wondering what it felt like to him. Apparently touching his tail was like touching my dick, so this was what? I pressed harder, feeling them flutter. He leaned his head back further, and I watched them. The flutters were almost… cute. I was going to massage more, but I heard him moan. The sound was low and thick in the warm air. I felt something twist inside me.

"Stop." He gasped. I removed my hands immediately.

"Sorry." I laid back down, I wanted to seem as nonthreatening as possible.

"I knew what it would feel like when I gave you permission to touch." He swallowed hard. I saw something move behind him and glanced down. His fin was trembling. I had made him blush! Well, the merpeople equivalent of blushing.

"Thank you for letting me do that." I said quietly. He was watching me darkly. I propped myself up on my elbows while his moan replayed in my ears. He leaned down my face. I counted the inches between our lips. 5…4…3….2…1…

I whimpered as he pressed his lips to mine. They were warm and tasted like the sea. I reached my hand up and tangled them in his hair. Just as I felt his tongue licking at my lips, wanting me to open up for him, I heard Mikasa.

"EREN!" She was outside the cave, on the dangerous side of the cove, scrambling over the rocks.

"Oh fuck me." I whispered against his mouth. His eyes went wide.

"It's not mating cycle, Eren." He said.

"Not you, Mikasa."

"Is that who's calling your name?"

"Yes." I sighed. "That's my sister." I kissed him briefly again.

"It's time for me to wake up." I sat up. I had to go.

"Eren? Will you come back?" Levi asked, grabbing my hand.

"EREN!" Her voice sounded further away. "STOP LOOKING FOR MERMAIDS, COME THE FUCK ON!"

"You came looking for me?" Levi asked. He let go of my hand. He looked down. "Don't come back, Eren."

"What?" I was confused. "You just asked if I would-"

"I know what I fucking said. Leave and don't come back." He pushed off the bank and flipped around. I saw his tail rise up before going back down, splashing me. I spurted the water out of my mouth then scrambled up the bank to the rocky side of the cove. I slipped as soon as I got out, I tripped and cut my knees and hands open on the jagged rocks. This is why no one comes over here.

"MIKASA! SISTER!" I screamed while wiping the blood form my palms on my swim trunks.

"EREN!" I saw her swing her flashlight over to me and saw it bob up and down as she ran over here. My head was spinning. He let me touch him. He kissed me. He told me to stay away. Why? Because we're different species?

I would come back tomorrow. I glanced down at the dark entrance to the cave where Levi lived. I frowned at the jagged rocks that lined the entrance. The only safe entrance was underwater. I would be here tomorrow night. I swore it.

* * *

I'm going to have so much fun writing the mating cycle scenes.


	3. Chapter 3

Eren POV

Tomorrow night couldn't come fast enough. I barely paid attention through all of the nonsense of the day, spending most of the time thinking about Levi. I had been glancing at the clock all through Mikasa's many lectures on safety. I didn't tell her about Levi, partly because I didn't have his permission to tell my sister about him and partly because I didn't think Mikasa would believe me. Would any reasonable person believe me? I doubted it.

Dinner that night was so tense. Mikasa and I made sandwiches and she insisted I eat at the table with her. I chewed while she talked. It seemed like I was looking at her, but I was really looking over her shoulder to see out the window. I wanted to know how dark it was. Should I visit Levi at the same time tonight? I might not be able to make it past Mikasa until then. She would definitely be on high alert, especially since I had gotten hurt on the rocks last time I snuck out.

"Eren I was thinking we should go looking for mermaids together." She said, before a bite.

"What?" I directed my attention back to her at the magic word 'mermaid'.

"We should go looking for mermaids together." She said again.

My heart skipped a beat and I faked a smile. "The blue tailed mermaid's tits were that good?"

She narrowed her eyes. "This is something that you are obviously into, and I want to support you. It's dangerous to go running off like you do, so I figured that if we went together…" she trailed off. I knew what she was saying. She thought she had to protect me.

"I'm strong enough to handle myself." I said.

"You are." She agreed. "But sometimes you bite off more than you can chew and having a helping hand around when that happens is not a bad thing."

Damn it. She had a point, but I couldn't let her know about Levi right now.

"You know what? I think we should go do something together. But I'm not really that into mermaids, now." I said, trying to keep my body language casual.

She raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? So I won't catch you down at the cove again?"

"Nope." I finished my sandwich. "I'm getting really into seashells." I threw out the first thing that came to mind.

"Seashells?" She asked. Knitting her eyebrows together.

"Yeah. Like, you can make shit with them." I said lamely. I knew nothing about seashells.

"You want to make things with seashells?" She finished up her sandwich.

"Yeah. Sure. Why not? We can decorate like picture frames and liven the place up around here." I gestured around. Mom was the one that decorated and made things bright. Now that she was gone, so, too, was the happy air.

She looked at me strangely. I needed to lie better.

"I was even thinking we could go into town and get some nice pictures made or get a camera and take lots of pictures of us together. We can include Armin, too." I added. Her face softened.

"Yeah. That sounds nice. Seashells, okay." She said, and I knew I was mostly in the clear.

"I'll leave Armin's book on the table and we can give it to him when he comes down here tomorrow. Armin hadn't been here today, and we both wondered why. He usually stopped by every day; he had a room here upstairs across from mine and even a toothbrush in the upstairs bathroom. We talked about walking over to his house, (it was about ten minutes away down the beach), but we didn't. Most of the time when he didn't come to our house, it was because he was doing something important or sick.

"Okay," Mikasa mumbled as we carried our dishes over to the sink. With the book downstairs and not with me, Mikasa would think I was really over mermaids. I didn't need the book anyway; I had a real merman to talk to.

We talked about seashells and pictures and Armin as we washed dishes. I faked a yawn as soon as I possible could and I mentioned being really tired.

"Eren, you slept til noon. You can't possibly be tired." She said. "Are you sick?"

"I might be." I moved to the stairs. "I might have picked something up from Armin, we'll see in the morning."

"Make sure to shower and drink lots of water!" She called to me as I climbed the stairs. I called back that I would and then closed my door. I locked it and changed into my swim trunks. I put my pajama pants over it to cover them up and walked out to the bathroom. I brushed my teeth loudly with the door open. I knocked over a few things and cursed loudly so Mikasa would hear that I was in the bathroom preparing for bed.

"Eren, I'm going to shower." She called up. "You need anything before I call it a night?"

"Naw!" I walked back to my room. "I'm just gonna sleep a lot and hope I feel better in the morning. Just stay out of my room in case I'm contagious." I added in a yawn and hoped it was convincing. I heard her call up that she would stay away then I walked back into my room and left the door open a crack. I heard the shower come on and quickly stripped off my pajama pants and slipped on my water shoes. I knew she could hear anything over the whining of the old pipes so I didn't hesitate to run down the stairs and out of the house. I stopped by the shed and grabbed the flashlight I had used yesterday.

I made it to the cove just as the sun was setting. By the time I was in Levi's cave, it was dark out. I turned on the flashlight and set it on a rock nearby. I tried to get comfortable in the sand waiting for him, but the stinging of sand and saltwater rubbing into my cuts and scrapes made it difficult. I laid back and tried to relax. I thought about sleeping again, since I didn't know how long he would take and the warm, heavy air reminded me of a blanket. I was too excited for that, though.

I was expecting there to be some sort of warning that Levi was here, but there wasn't. I was laying on the bank with my arms over my face when his wet hand shot out and grabbed me. I screamed. My heart beat out of my chest and I shot upright.

"Shut up brat!" He growled. I hushed when I saw it was him. I panted with my excitement and saw him holding my sandy, bloody palm.

"You're injured." He said.

"Yeah. When I was trying to get to my sister, I fell on the rocks." I said. I smiled at him, not even thinking about the pain anymore. I was so happy he was real. He was real and he was right in front of me.

He looked up at me with dark eyes. "I told you to not come back."

"I- I know you did, but how am I supposed to stay away? You have got to be the most interesting thing that has ever happened to me." I leaned close to him. I wondered if he would kiss me again.

"Is that so, brat?" He hissed.

"Yes!" I answered honestly. "You are incredible!"

He jerked my hand to his face and pulled his lips back from teeth. I registered the pain before I registered what was happening. He was biting me! I whined in pain and tugged my hand, but quickly stopped that when I felt the flesh tearing.

"Le-Levi? Please stop, you're hurting me!" I looked into his eyes, not seeing any emotion there, just intensity. I couldn't figure out what he was doing but tingles were spreading all over my body, concentrating on my knees and palms. The tingles faded into a heat that got hotter and hotter until I felt on fire there.

"Stop!" I cried out, I put my other hand on his head to try and push him away and he let me go. I looked at my bitten hand and saw that there was actually no blood pouring from it like I would have expected. That didn't hold my attention for long because I then noticed that my palms were healed. I looked quickly at the other and saw no scrapes, only my own smooth, tanned skin. The same was true for my knees.

"How?" I breathed.

"I healed you. Now we are even and you should leave." He said, pushing away and sinking lower into the water.

"But the bite!" I looked back at my hand, and it was healed as well.

"That's what healed you. I bit my tongue so it bled and then mixed it with your blood. Just the few drops were needed for your scrapes." He disappeared under the water.

"Levi!" I dove in after him. He didn't really expect me to leave did he? I fumbled around in the dark water, not being able to see much. I saw motion below me and moved towards it. I looked all around, my chest tightening with the lack of air. I had to find him fast. I felt something brush up against my side and grabbed it. I turned towards it and saw him there. He pulled me into his arms and swam back up to the surface. I gasped for breath as soon as I had the chance.

"I said 'leave'!" he held me on the surface. "Why the hell would you try to chase a merperson underwater? Are you that ignorant? You need to breathe!"

I turned in his arms and looked up at him. I was slightly below him in the water and I could feel the warm water swirling around up where his tail was fluttering gently to keep us in place. I liked the warm water around me up to shoulder level, but I liked his arms more. I blushed hard and looked away. It was the first time that a man had held me and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

"You're blood rushing." He said, as if it were news to me. "Why?" He pulled me closer and swam to the short distance to the bank, placing me on it.

"Because, um," I bit my lip. "Does it really even matter?"

"Yes. I want to know why you blood rush." He said. I was beginning to regret telling him that blush was a contraction of blood rush. It was too cute the way he tripped over human things like that.

"Because I'm not used to being held." I said, looking away. I sat on the bank, my legs in the water. He had found a place where I could sit and it was like sitting on the edge of a pool, my knees bent comfortably. His hands where on either side of my knees and he was stretched out on the water. I could see his tail in the light from the flashlight and it sparkled a glorious gray. I wanted to touch it, but knew I couldn't.

"You have no human to hold you?" He asked, cocking his head to the side like a puppy.

"You already know I'm single!" I looked angrily at him.

"What about your human sister?"

"Sister and brother don't cuddle!" I paused. "Siblings sometimes, like, share a blanket, but they don't hold each other, not like you were holding me." I tried to explain platonic hugging to him.

"What's a blanket?" He asked. I just blinked at him. How was I to explain things that were so commonplace to me to another species?

"You remember when I was asleep? People put layers of fabric over their bodies when they sleep for comfort and warmth. They are used for a lot of different things; humans put them on hard things to make them soft for, like, sitting and laying."

"Do you need a blanket here?" He asked.

"I thought you wanted me to leave?" I asked.

"That was before you dove into the water after a damn merperson. I have gills, brat. You don't. I'm obviously stuck with you." He hesitated before adding, "Besides, I think I may make use of you."

"How so?" I asked. Dirty, dirty things were flashing through my mind. How many times did he say he could go without stopping again?

"You teach me about humans and I'll teach you about merpeople." He said. Oh.

"That's it?" I asked. I was hoping for more, even if was just a mention of friendship.

"I might mate you." He said simply, as if telling me water is wet or that he had a big gray tail.

"You…what?" I asked, blushing. I didn't think he would say that.

"The full moon is coming in a few weeks. You're on my list of possible mates."

"Why?" I breathed. That was too good to be true. Although, I didn't particularly enjoy the way he made it sound like there was a swarm of mermen that were after the same thing I was.

"You're a cute, gay little brat. You've got some muscle, so you might be able to handle a pounding."

"We can't!" I cried, then immediately regretted it.

"Why? Do you not want to mate with me?" He leaned forward and pushed his upper body up until his lips were close to mine. "Because I think you do."

He kissed me and my hand started shaking. I brought my hands up and tangled them in his wet hair. Once again, I noticed that he tasted like the sea. I felt the tickle of his tongue and opened my mouth for him. He stroked my tongue with his and I got excited. I tilted his head back and shoved my tongue down his throat.

He pulled back. "Fuck, brat. I've got to teach you how to kiss before we mate."

That brought me back to what I was thinking about before.

"We can't mate, Levi." I whisper, untangling my hands from his hair.

"Why? Are you promised to another?" He asked.

"I'm 17." I said sadly. He lowered away from my face.

"You are 17?"

I nodded.

"What does that mean?" He asked. Oh man! I forgot that he may not know about human time keeping.

"Okay, so a year is 365 days. Oh, wait, let me back up. A day is 24 hours. Shit! Do you know hours? 60 minutes?" I asked.

"I know what years are, Eren. I'm just wondering why you being 17 years old is so significant."

"I'm underaged." I said.

"Underaged?"

"I'm not old enough to consent to sex. The law here says 18 is the age when I can consent to sex."

"You humans have laws for when you can fuck?" His brows knitted together. "I don't think human-merperson laws have an age of consent, Eren."

"I don't feel right mating while underage." I looked at him pointedly. "Don't merpeople have some sort of law of consent?"

"We only have one rule: never fuck unless both have given the mating signal."

"So there are no age limits?"

He shook his head. "Once you are old enough for the moon to activate the mate cycle in you, you are free to fuck."

"So there is an age of consent! It's just determined biologically and not by the government." I said to him.

"So you are saying right now that if you were a merperson the moon would have not yet activated your first mating cycle?" He asked.

"Yes." I nodded my head. "I think we are on the same page."

"When will you be old enough?"

"On my next birthday. That's three months." I bit my lip.

"Three mating cycles." He said.

"You'll have to mate with someone else." I was disappointed. I just didn't feel right about it while underage, though. I knew lots of people had sex a lot younger than me, but I didn't feel right about it.

"Can I still teach you to kiss?" He leaned up.

"Yes. That's fine." I licked his lips.

"Not like that brat! You're a slobbering mess! Gentle, gentle…" He showed me the way. I had a feeling I would learn a lot from Levi.


	4. Chapter 4

eruri and mike x levi mentioned in passing i promise its almost nothing :D also dont hate me for what I did to isabel

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Eren POV

Mikasa insisted that I stay in bed and not help her with the chores of the day. I felt guilty watching her work from my window, but I knew that if I went out and started to help, she would question my sickness excuse. I did prepare lunch for us, though, a simple pasta with sauce. Mikasa told me that she didn't see any sign of Armin while she worked. That was strange, considering how he met with us every day.

We decided that two days of absence was enough to justify a concerned phone call. His grandfather answered. Apparently Armin _was_ sick, after all. I tried to look completely sad at this news, but inside I was just a tiny bit happy I would get another night with the book. I planned to show Levi it tonight. I wondered what he would think, especially of the illustration of the merman that looked like him.

Mikasa helped me wash our dishes, and I suggested she take a nap.

"I'm fine, Eren," She said looking at me sideways. "You're the one who's sick, not me."

"You had to do all the morning chores yourself. Plus, if you run yourself down, you'll be more likely to get sick, after all."

"I'm not tired or anything. I'm very strong, Eren, I can handle taking over the chores for a little while." She hummed. "You wanna go to a doctor or something?"

"You and I both know we can't afford that." I said, then continued pressing. "Which is exactly why you can't get sick, too. With us both out of commission, nothing will get done around here."

"Well, Dad's check was bigger this week. They have been steadily increasing lately…I don't know if his pay is getting better or if he's just sending a bigger portion of it home to his kids or what the deal is, but we have money for medicine for you, Eren." She leaned in to hug me and I backed up.

"I might be contagious." I hated not hugging her, but I had to give credit to this lie. "Also, I _don't _need medicine. Some rest will be fine."

"If you say so…" She tugged her scarf her scarf up to her mouth and looked down. I felt like shit.

"We should both take naps. We both need rest."

She looked at me for a long time before nodding. "Yeah."

I watched her go to her room on this floor before I headed up to my own. I started to reread the mermaid book while I kept the door open to listen for any noises downstairs. I blushed as I read about the mating cycles again. I tried not to picture mating with Levi, and failed. I wondered what he look like as a human. A very naked and horny human. Would he just jump on me after turning human or would he need some time to adjust? Would he cuddle with me in-between mating times? Has he ever mated with a human before?

I shook my head. I was thinking like I was going to mate with Levi tonight. Not only was that impossible because he wouldn't be in human form for another week, but also I was still 17. These past couple days, I had been thinking hard about my age and what it really meant to me. Why did my age matter to me so much suddenly? Maybe I was just adamant about the age of consent with Levi because I wasn't ready, yet. His next mating cycle was in a week, and I doubted I would be ready for him by then. But what about his next mating cycle? Or the next? Would I be ready in a month? Two? After my birthday?

Who would he mate with next week? He had said he had a list of possible mates. I wondered if he would let me meet his mate. Did he have merperson friends? Merperson family? If so, I wanted to meet them. I would ask him about these things tonight.

I would also ask him about our schedule when he started mating. Though it had only been two days, I liked to think that we were developing a nightly visitation schedule. I couldn't imagine he would be okay with me visiting while he was mating. We couldn't exactly make friendly chatter while he was mating someone. I doubted that the merman he was mating would be happy with my presence there, either.

After a couple hours of thinking, I was sure Mikasa was asleep. There hadn't been a peep from downstairs in a while. I pulled my shoes on and tip-toed out to the stairs. Last time I was sneaking out, I had an idea that I wanted to try, and now I was going to try it. Instead of going down those horribly creaky stairs, I swung my body onto the railing and braced myself. I had slid down the railing a lot of times as a kid, but never when I was this big and heavy. I would wake Mikasa if I waited too long to jump off and slammed into the ground.

I panicked about halfway down and jumped way too soon. Instead of gracefully landing with a tap, I thunked onto the floor and had to scramble to get to my feet. I paused, holding my breath. The only sound was the ocean in the distance, and I relaxed. I made my way outside to the shed and grabbed the diving bag and everything else I needed. I was practically giddy with excitement thinking about visiting Levi tonight.

I couldn't avoid the steps on the way back up, and I woke up Mikasa. I winced as I heard the first couple loud groans of the steps and just dashed the rest of the way up. I stashed my shoes and the stuff under my bed and waited until Mikasa got up.

"Eren?" She called up the steps.

"Yeah?" I called back, stepping outside of the room.

"You okay? I heard you running around pretty loudly. Did you fall?"

"Nah. I'm okay." I walked downstairs and Mikasa frowned at me.

"You didn't nap, did you?"

"Why are you saying that, Mikasa?" I asked, looking at the ground.

"You always have little boy bed head when you wake up. Your hair is fine right now."

"Oh." I looked back up at her. "Couldn't sleep. I'm glad you did, though. You worked hard today."

She hummed and glanced at the clock.

"Let's do an early dinner. I'll make us something." She started to head into the kitchen, but stopped and looked back at me.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"You know you can tell me anything, Eren."

"Yeah."

"I love you, Eren."

"I love you, too, Mikasa." I smiled at her and she disappeared into the kitchen.

I felt bad keeping Mikasa out of the loop, but I didn't think it was the right time to tell her about Levi. I didn't think she'd believe me, and I knew she wouldn't like me going down to the cove to see him.

The rest of the night passed pretty normally. Mikasa gave me some vitamin C tabs and insisted I drink lots of water. We talked about Armin and we planned our next trip into town. She and I went into the living room to watch a movie after dinner, and I couldn't help glancing at the clock. What was Levi doing right now? These past two days he had met me in his cave. Where did he go before coming home? Did he have a merperson school or work?

Around 7 o'clock I started yawning. She put in the sequel to the action movie we were watching and I missed most of it, thinking about my merman friend and what he was doing right now. What did merpeople do for entertainment? I would have to ask him.

At 10 o'clock, I started itching for Mikasa to call it a night. She normally went to bed around this time, but I guess the nap meant she didn't need to turn in so early. Great. I said goodnight and went through my fake bedtime routine around 10:30. It was earlier than I usually went to bed, especially since school wasn't in session right now, but I was 'sick' and also hoping to get to Levi as soon as I could.

It was midnight before I heard the tv flick off downstairs and Mikasa walk to her bedroom. I waited a few minutes before I slid off of the bed and pulled out my things. I tucked the book into several zip up bags before I put it in the water-proof bag just in case. I felt a little silly doing it, since the bag _was _designed to transport things underwater, but I just had to be sure. I put the attached rope onto my wrist and slipped on my swimming trunks. After putting on my water shoes, I was off to see Levi.

I slid down the rail again, this time landing softly and made it out of the house easily. I saw that the moon was getting closer to being full. Levi should start acting more and more aggressively as it got closer and closer to full moon, especially since he was cold water. I wondered briefly if I should be concerned for my safety, but shook it off. I didn't think Levi would ever hurt me.

Like all the other times, I waited until I was out of sight before turning on the flashlight. The water was very warm tonight, and I enjoyed the swim toward Levi's cave. I stayed close to the surface for as long as I could, but had to swim down to get to the underwater entrance. I had made it about halfway there when I felt something wrap around me. I tried to scream, an instinct, and my mouth flooded with water. The thing let go and I whipped around in the water and shone my light on it.

Levi winced and brought his hand up to shield himself from the light. I relaxed upon seeing that it was Levi, but then started to panic. I had lost my air when I tried to scream. Normally I could just barely make it to Levi's cave. I shone my light all around above me, trying to find a place that wasn't covered with cove rock. My chest tightened and I felt myself begin to panic once more. I swam up, trying to keep myself calm. Levi followed me.

I was out of air and I needed some now. Levi wrapped his arms around me again and rested his head on my shoulder, watching me whip my flashlight all along the bottom the rocks. He must not understand the danger of the situation. I turned to look at him and brought the hand up not holding the flashlight up and touched my throat. He wasn't looking at the gesture, looking instead at the bag I had tied to that wrist. He removed an arm from my waist to grab the bag curiously. My chest was on fire and my blood was pounding in my ears. I needed him to save me and now. I reached out and grabbed a handful of his floating hair. I yanked it hard toward me and he jerked away, making a violent noise that shook my body. He narrowed his eyes at me and I frantically gestured to my throat. He knitted his eyebrows together before they suddenly shot up. He looked shocked and then let me go.

I thought he was leaving me to die before he I felt him firmly grab my wrist and start swimming. Had I not been having frantic thoughts about making it to the surface, I would have been in awe of just how fast we were moving. His tail was flicking powerfully beside of me and his back fin was tucked in low. I looked at it for a moment before black spots popped up in my blurry vision. I closed my eyes.

I thought I would never reach the surface. However, Levi shoved me above water and I gasped over and over. He hugged my shaking body to his chest and whispered to me. I couldn't make out what he was saying over the blood pounding in my ears. He held me back a little bit and reached down to pull my legs up. He held me bridal style in his arms while I panted and coughed. If I wasn't in so much pain I would have been embarrassed about all the water and mucus I was coughing up and spitting into Levi's home. After a few minutes, I was able to hear what he was saying.

"…if you die on me, I swear I flip shit. You little brat that has to breathe and spit shit in my water. I can't believe you. Why couldn't you make it down here? How did you even make it down here before?-" He said.

I cut off with a loud noise that was somewhere between a scream and a grunt of annoyance. I let my head fall back and ignored the way this caused the salt water to run down my throat instead of out my nose. I stayed quiet.

"Fuck. Oh fuck." He said. "Di-did you just die? Eren?"

I peeled open my eyes and looked over at him. He let out a shaky breath.

"I thought that noise meant you were dying." He whispered before leaning down and pressing a kiss to my forehead. I blushed and he looked hard at my cheeks.

"Bank," I said, because it was all I could manage right now. My voice was scratchy and my throat hurt.

He swam me over to the bank and I wiggled out of his arms to get on it. Without his support, I slipped nearly underwater again before he caught me. I reached out with my legs to kick myself up and felt the smooth muscle of his tail. He jerked it away and placed his hands under my arms. He lifted me up like a little kid and set me on the bank. I untied my flashlight and bag from my wrists and slung them onto the sand before laying down on it myself. He slid up next to me and we lay perpendicular so he could stay with his tail in the water. I closed my eyes.

"Are you going to die?" He asked. I shook my head.

"That means 'no'?" He asked. Fuck, I would have to use my voice.

"I'm not going to die." My voice was raw.

"You sound like shit." He paused. "Did you almost die?"

"I don't know." I rasped.

"Why do you sound like that?"

"Salt." I had had way too much salt in my throat and that combined with the, um, _thing _that just happened made my voice hoarse. He was quiet for a minute.

"You need fresh water? Because you have too much, er, salt and it's hurting you and making you sound like that?"

"Yeah."

"There's no fresh water here that I know of." He sounded apologetic. "What about other, non-salty liquids?"

I opened my eyes and looked at his sideways face positioned over mine. What the hell was he offering me?

"Yeah." I said, mostly wanting relieve but also curious as to what he was offering me. He pushed off of his elbows and slid off of the bank. I watched his head disappear and closed my eyes.

I thought about what had happened. Now that I was safe, I could reflect on the sight of Levi swimming in the water. His hair floated when he was fully submerged and revealed an undercut. I had never noticed it before because of the way his wet hair laid on his head when he was out with me. I wondered about that sound he had made when I pulled his hair, too. It was almost a growl, and I made a mental note to ask him about it.

He splashed back up to me and held out a small ball with a blue tint. It was about the size and shape of a pear. I examined it in my hands while he laid some more beside us and got back into our previous position.

"What's this?" I croaked.

"Sea fruit. This is the kind that grows closest to my cave. Bite the smallest part there and suck the juice out."

I looked at it cautiously, turning it over and over in my hands. He sighed.

"This fruit's juice is what we drink when we are in human form, Eren. It's safe."

I looked at him and then took the smallest part into my mouth. I tested it by flicking my tongue over the soft skin of the fruit but tasted nothing but the salt water it was covered in. I bit through the skin and the fruit exploded in my hands. The juice ran all over my tongue and I almost moaned at how good it was. It was warm from being in the warm waters, but sweet enough that I didn't mind. It had the flavor of pear with a bite of star fruit. I sucked all the juice out and then Levi handed me another. I drank the juice from all five that he had brought with him and relaxed as the salt in my throat was washed away.

I sighed happily and stretched. Levi rested on one arm and watched me.

"Better?" He asked.

"Much better." I said, and my voice sounded a lot more like my own.

"Will you be okay?" He asked.

"I'll be fine. Just maybe don't ever scare me like that again?" I shot him a look.

"I scared you?"

"Yes. You scared me when you just grabbed me out of nowhere. I lost the air I was using to make it to your cave when you did that."

"'Out of nowhere'? You couldn't hear me approach you?"

"No! I can't hear things underwater!" This reminded me of the growl. I had heard that mostly through my body, as it was so forceful it shook me. "Also, why did you growl at me?"

"So humans can't hear well underwater?" He snorted. "Also, it's obvious I growled because you hurt me."

"I had to get your attention to save me!" I sat up angrily. "Why did you grab me in the first place?"

"I heard you swimming over to me and I thought I would watch you. You swim like a brat. It's bad." He barked out a laugh.

"I swim great for a human! I'm one of the best out of my friends!" I leaned forward a bit. "Most of the time I can make it fine, thank you!"

"You should stop swimming over here like that." He said. I gave him a hurt look.

"You don't want me to come over here anymore just because of a silly misunderstanding?"

"Eren, what I mean is that I should swim you down here. You can come the way you usually do, but when I hear you, I'll meet you close to the surface and then take you through the deep parts into here."

I was shocked. I was going to be swimming with a mermaid. Then something occurred to me.

"What if you're not here? I mean, the first times I came here, you showed up after me."

"Yeah. I've been helping Hanje with something, but today I made them let me go a little early. I figured you would show up at around the same time as you did the last two times, but you are really late."

I sat closer to him, hoping he would kiss me or let me play with his gills or something tonight.

"Mikasa didn't fall asleep til later today, which was kinda my fault. I don't sneak out until she falls asleep. Also, who's Hanje?"

He huffed and rolled his eyes. "A merperson friend of mine. They're basically a mad scientist."

I gasped and grabbed his shoulders. He straightened up a bit and looked at me with wide eyes.

"Can I meet them?"

"Fuck no!" He hissed. "They would drag you to their cave and do experiments on you. Absolutely not!"

I slid down beside him and bent my knees so my feet were in the water. "Can I meet someone else, then?"

"You really want to meet another merperson? Am I not good enough company?" His eyes shot down between us where my foot was close to brushing his tail.

"You are great company, Levi! I'm just curious. Wouldn't you like to meet more humans?"

He rolled his eyes. "_Brat._ No."

I laughed and then stopped when he reached his arm out and pulled me against his side. He kept his arm over me and brought his lips down to my cheek. I smiled goofily when he kissed my lips and he sighed.

"Stop smiling, I'm trying to kiss you." He tried again, but he could really only reach the corner of my mouth in the position we were in. We tried to adjust this way and that while still trying to kiss and I was getting frustrated.

"Hold on, let me try something." He pushed up off of me.

"What are you doing?" I whispered.

"My fin." He said and I looked at the fin on the back of his tail. It was a lot lower that it was usually and I gasped as I saw it tuck almost completely against his tail. He rolled over and laid on his back.

"Ow." He winced.

"Are you okay?" I asked him, trying to take my eyes off of his abs.

"Yeah. I don't like to keep my fin tucked in and I really don't like having weight put on it, but I think it'll be worth it." He patted his stomach. "I'm way too heavy to get on top of you, so you'll get on top of me."

"Okay." I eyed his stomach before crawling over to him. I swung my leg over him and straddled his hips where his skin gradually smoothed into gray scales. I leaned forward and put my hands on either side of his chest. He rubbed up and down my arms and I wiggled my feet.

"Oh fuck! Eren, don't do that." He whispered harshly as his eyes widened.

"Why?" I said, sitting back.

"Your feet are resting against my tail. Don't tickle it like that." He eyed my body and I blushed. His gaze was so intense I felt naked.

"Sorry." I said to him. I basically just tickled his dick and the thought made me turn red all the way down my neck.

"You're blood rushing. Why?"

I covered my face with my hands. "I am not blushing. Shut up."

"You are th-" He started. I put my hands back they were and leaned forward. I kissed him gently in the middle of his sentence and he returned it. I remembered all the things he had taught me yesterday and I did my best to demonstrate that I was a grateful student. I must have been kissing him well because he tangled his hands in my hair.

I kissed him sweetly until I felt his tongue at my lips. I squeaked and opened my mouth, letting him slip his tongue inside. He explore for a few minutes before he pulled back.

"Mmmmm… brat flavor." He smirked underneath me. I stuck out my tongue at him.

"Keep it up and see if you ever mate me."

He laughed and it I felt the shaking underneath me. I smiled at his laughing face and then sat up when I remember his mating cycle would be coming up soon.

"Levi, your mating cycle is coming up next week."

"It is. Are you for sure you don't want to spend it with me?" He rubbed up and down my sides. "I could see us having a lot of fun."

"I-I can't. Not this mating cycle." His hands rested on my hips and I had to stop myself from trying to grind down on him. "I was going to ask who you would be mating with, though."

"You want to know who I'm going to mate with?" He raise both eyebrows.

"You said there was a list…Is it Hanje?" I asked.

"God no! No!" He paused. "I'll most likely mate with Erwin or Mike."

"Can I meet them?" I asked excitedly.

"No." He growled. "You're mine."

I froze. A thrill ran through me at the sound of how deep his voice was. His gripped tightened on my hips then he relaxed.

"Sorry, sorry… full moon has me all aggressive. Look, Eren, I don't like the idea of bring Erwin and Mike here to meet you. Not so close to mating cycle. If one of them were to take an interest in you…" He squeezed my hips. "I'll let you meet Petra, though. She's really sweet; you'll like her. After mating cycle, though. Olou won't like his mate coming into a male's home so close to mating cycle."

"About mating cycle," I bit my lip, "How long should I stay away? I obviously should avoid the first night the moon is full and, what, four nights after that? Should I avoid visiting for a little while before the mating cycle?"

"You should probably stay away two or so days before mating cycle, all during it, and then maybe a day or two after it." He murmured while rubbing circles into my flesh. I wiggled and felt my thighs and feet brush up against his tail.

"Eren," he groaned. I couldn't stop thinking about taking my trunks off and rubbing on his tail. I wondered if we could fool around in this form. He could certainly play all he wanted with me. I would feel bad, though, being the one was received all the pleasure. I thought about his tail and gills again. Could I pleasure him?

I leaned back up to him and kissed him. While we were kissing, I moved my weight onto one hand and then brought my other hand up to his neck. He stiffened at my first touch. It took a couple moments of searching, but I found his gills. I gave gentle massaging motions on them and he gripped my waist hard. He growled into my mouth and pushed me away.

"I'm very aggressive right now, Eren. Don't tease me unless you want to end up naked." He said and his low voice made me whimper.

"I-I-I don't know, Levi." I was horny and he was like a dream come true, but I wasn't ready for this yet. I curled up a little and nestled my red face into his chest. He was dry now, but I could still smell the sea on his skin.

"Hey," he said gently. "Why don't we do something else? Show me whatever the hell it is you brought with you. I need to stretch out my fin, anyway."

"Holy shit! I can't believe I almost forgot!" I sat up quickly and scrambled to where I had the book. Levi rolled over and stretched his fin out to its full size. I took the book out of all of its bags and laid it on the sand in front of him.

"I recognize these markings mean 'mermaid'." He nodded to the cover.

"You can't read?" I said laying down on my stomach beside him and propping myself up on my elbows like him.

"Merpeople don't have much use for your written language, Eren. I can read the signs that are in the water because those are common knowledge to merpeople for safety purposes, but other than that I can only recognize a few words." He narrowed his eyes at the cover. "'Mermaids' is that word and 'Mermen' is that word."

"'_Mermaids and Mermen_," I read the title to him. "This is that mermaid book."

He nodded. "That word in between 'mermaid' and 'mermen' is 'and'?"

"Yeah." I flipped it open to a specific page. I pointed to the mermen with the dark blue tail and eyes and black hair. "He looks like you."

"What? I'm grey. Mike is the one who's dark blue." He snorted. "I'm way prettier than him."

I laughed. I read half of the book to him that night. He occasionally asked me to show him specific words and sometimes interrupted with corrections. Mostly he looked as fascinated as I did the first time I had read it. _"So this is what humans think about us"_ He had said. I pointed out the light blue tailed mermaid and joke about Mikasa loved that one.

"That's Annie." He said, looking at me suddenly. "Who made this book? How do they know exactly what Annie looks like?"

"Wait. Mikasa's mermaid crush is real?" I pointed to the mermaid. "This is an actual mermaid you know?"

"Yes. Look at the dead look in her eyes, the hair clipped back, hell, those are even her tits... This is Annie." He reached out and flipped through the book. "Holy shit! This one looks like Nanaba. This one looks like Gunter."

He looked at me shocked. "Where does this author live?"

"I don't know, let me see what the book says." I flipped to the about the author and read it to him.

_The Sina Environmental Agents, or S.E.A., live and work in Sina and are dedicated to all matter of Sina environments, above and below water._

"They live here." I said to him.

"Fuck me. Show me that one that looks like me again. I think it's fin is fucked up like mine."

I flipped back to the dark blue one and he put a finger on the fin on its tail. I hadn't noticed before, but it was drawn with a piece missing.

"Yup. That's supposed to be me. No one else has this fucked up fin." He raised his tail out of the water and I looked back at it. On his right side it looked like something had ripped a piece of his fin off.

"Holy shit. What happened?" I asked before I could stop myself.

"I tried to protect my little sister from mermaid hunters." He paused. "Tried."

I just stared at his sad face. I didn't know what to do. He looked at me once before looking down.

"Her name was Isabel and she had a tail the color of your eyes. They chopped it off. A couple days later I found the rest of her body. They threw her back in after they cut off her tail." He said quietly.

"Oh, Levi…" I whispered to him and leaned over and kissed every part of him I could reach with my lips.

"Should I tuck my fin back in?" He asked huskily as my lips got near his gills.

"Yes." I kissed his gills and he moaned. I glanced back and saw his trembling back fin tuck away before he rolled over.

I climbed on top of him and he pulled me close.

I was really starting to like Levi.


	5. Chapter 5

Eren POV

Bored. I was so incredibly bored. What the hell did I do before Levi? What did I fill my day with before Levi? I was sooooooo bored. I had spent all day in bed, moping around. I had already jacked off to the thought of Levi three times already and was out of ideas of things to do. I was regretting telling Mikasa and Armin to go into town without me. In my defense, Mikasa did ask me to go with them while I mid-stroke in a fantasy about Levi.

Levi had sent me away two days before his mating cycle, all during it, and for two days after. I was lucky that I only had one more day to go. The first couple of days weren't so bad, Mikasa, Armin, and I went up and down the beach and collect those sea shells I pretended to be interested in. Armin brought over his hot glue gun and see glued the stupid things to a frame.

I groaned and rolled around in my bed again. Levi was the most amazing thing to ever happen to me and I couldn't get to him right now. I guess I would have to do something less exciting than making out with a sexy merman.

I flipped through the pages of the book once again. I read the part about S.E.A. again, and wondered how I could find them to get some answers. Levi had been very disturbed to find that he and his friends were all featured in this book, and I wanted to help. I figured I could at least be useful on my last day of waiting.

I slipped on a t-shirt and some shorts because it was very warm outside. I wondered what Levi, a cold water, felt about these rising temperatures. The walk to the library was almost too warm. I was sweating by the time I entered the air conditioned building. I didn't know what I would find about the S.E.A., or if I would find anything at all, but I didn't know where else to go.

I smiled at the woman at the check-out counter and then headed to the computer. I brought up the book search and then typed in S.E.A. Three books popped up. I read the titles of each, smiling when I got to Armin's book. _Mermaids and Mermen, Mysteries of the Deep, _and _Fish and Fins. _I hovered over each title. _Mermaids and Mermen _was unavailable, but I didn't care because Armin's book was still safe at home. _Mysteries of the Deep _was currently checked out, and _Fish and Fins _was available.

I quickly wrote down the number for the book and asked the sweet old lady at the counter where I would find the book. She pointed me to an isle and I walked down it until I found the book. I flipped through it casually but found it was just about different types of fish and their fin shapes. It was more for a marine biologist students because it used lots of jargon I didn't understand and included math for water dynamics in reference to fins and it just made my head hurt to look at it. These people were smart.

I sighed as I put it back onto the self. Maybe these people were into actually studying marine biology and not just mermaids. I needed to meet one of them. I needed to ask them where they got this information and, most importantly, how they knew what Levi looked like.

I got back onto the computer and searched _mermaid_. Not surprisingly, most of the results were children's books and the rest were fantasy novels. I tried _mermen_ but ended up with teen supernatural romances. I rolled my eyes at them before I realized I was basically living one of them. I blushed thinking about the romance that was blooming between Levi and me.

Was it really a romance, though? It wasn't like Levi had asked me to be his boyfriend. But to be fair, it wasn't like I had asked him to be mine, either. I didn't really know if it would be appropriate if I did. If we were together, he would still have someone else for his mating cycles, at least for the next two. Right now Levi wasn't mine, so I didn't feel like I had the right to be jealous of those other mermen.

Still… I couldn't help but wonder if it was Erwin or Mike that he was with right now. I wondered what they were like. Would he ever introduce us? He said I could meet Petra. He said that I would like her. I thought back to the pictures of the mermaids in the book. Would she be topless like them? If she was…it would be the first time I would be around a topless woman. I gripped the table in front of me. I wasn't interested in girls, but being around breasts would be… interesting.

I blushed badly as I started to walk out of the library, but the woman stopped me. Her nametag pinned to her dusty yellow sweat read "Dorothy".

"Did you find what you were looking for, dear?" She asked me.

"Ah…I found the book, but it really wasn't for me."

"Oh, hun, sorry to hear that. You a student down at Sina Community?"

"No, afraid not. Why?"

"Oh, usually only students from the community college check out that book. Well, dear, let me know if you need anything or I can help you with anything?"

"Well, I'm researching something. Maybe you know something about it?" If she had been a librarian for long in this marine town then she might know something.

"Sure, ask away."

"You ever heard of S.E.A.? Sina Environmental Agents? I need to interview one of them for school."

"Oh, dearie! Those mermaid hunters have been around here since the 50s! They're a crazy bunch, always talking about mermaids like they actually exist-"

"Mermaid hunters?" These people were actually mermaid hunters? They were responsible for things like what happened to Levi's little sister?

"Yes. My brother was into it when we were younger and he didn't have such a bad back. You know, he's a'getting some surgery done on his back. Old fool says the doctors gonna take his spine out, clean it, and put it back in! His minds starting to slip, unfortunately. I do say that his mind started to slip when he got involved in that mermaid nonsense anyway-" She started on her ramble.

"Can you tell me where I might find someone from S.E.A.?" I interrupted.

"Well, they disappeared out of public sight after the incident in the 70s. Strange thing, that incident-"

"What incident?"

"Oh my, that was before you were even alive. See, the S.E.A. said that they had finally caught a mermaid and then they put it on display in their clubhouse. They said that only scientists and doctors were allowed to see the thing, but since Dotty was in with the bunch, I snuck in with him. I saw that poor dear they had trapped. A little girl-"

"Did she have a green tail?" I asked her suddenly. I wondered if the girl could be Levi's sister.

"Golly no, the little girl had a pink tail. It was obviously just a suit that they had invented to gain more funding – they were losing support in the community for being so mermaid crazy, you see – but it sure looked real. I felt so bad for the poor little girl that they had in it, though. They put her in a glass tank, like you'd find at the aquarium. I don't know how the little dearie held her breath for so long…I, of course, teased my brother. I said, "Dotty boy, you get that girl out of there, take off that silly tail and put her in a weddin' dress!" Poor Dotty, though, he never married. It was probably because he was so obsessed those fish people. Shame, I would have loved to see his kids. I always wanted to be an aunt. I tell you, my aunt, Shay- well her name was Shelia, but she went by Shay, good Lord knows why- was a great aunt. She was a marine biologist. One of the first women to do that job here!-"

"What happened to the girl?" I interrupted again. I felt bad doing that, but I needed her to focus.

"Oh, yes, that's the thing. The girl just disappeared. We had visitors from all over come to our little sea town to see the girl and they left just as quickly as she disappeared. Well, that's what the S.E.A. said. They said she just there one moment and then one moment she just _poof_. I don't buy it for a moment, and Dotty wouldn't tell me anything when I asked him. He got angry when I asked him, which was so unlike Dotty. He was a sweet brother. Sure, he teased me and put gum in my hair and things brothers do to their little sisters-"

"What did he say happened to the girl?"

"I asked him if I could see her. I just wanted to make sure she was okay, maybe make her some cookies and see if I could talk her into marrying my brother. He said she was gone and then locked himself in the basement for a while. He wouldn't say anything other than what the newspapers were reporting. That she disappeared."

"Any chance you know any members of S.E.A. I could talk to?"

"Well, you could go visit Dotty in the nursing home. I'm sure he would love it. He rarely gets visitors. Just go to nursing home next to the town bakery and ask for Dot Pixis."

"Thank you, I'll be sure to do that." I reached out and shook her hand.

"You do that. Oh, he'll be so happy to talk to a young man interested in S.E.A. I'll tell him you're coming. What's your name, dearie?"

"Eren. Eren Yaeger."

She gave my hands a squeeze in hers.

"Any relation to Grisha Yaeger?" She asked, and I wasn't surprised. My dad used to be a prominent doctor in the town before he ran off after Mom died.

"That's my dad." I smiled at her.

"And you don't know about S.E.A.?"

"What do you mean? What does my dad have to do with S.E.A.?"

She raised her gray eyebrows. "Oh, honey. Grisha Yaegar has been the president of S.E.A. for nearly a decade. He took the presidency from Cal Arlert. Arlert took the presidency from my brother. He complains about the two of them all the time. Talking about how making everything secret was ruining S.E.A." She shook her head.

"I-I didn't know that. I didn't know my dad- He left. He disappeared. He can't be a part of this. He can't be. He's _gone_." I looked at her wide-eyed.

"Oh, no. I've upset you." She walked around the counter and hugged me close. I was surprised but hugged her small frame back.

"When you go to see him, tell him I sent you and give him a fake last name. Okay?" She squeezed me hard once before letting me go.

"I-I will." I stumbled out of the library and was shivering despite the heat.

My dad. My dad was part of – no, he was the president of- an organization that hunted down merpeople. I felt sick. I couldn't handle this. I walked aimlessly around the sidewalk until I felt the nausea. I ran awkwardly down the pier and hurled right into the ocean. I didn't have anywhere else to be sick and I couldn't think properly to dash into the restroom. People around me scrambled away. Some yelled at me and some laughed. I didn't think about them. I was hunched over on the pier, watching the dirty water churn below me.

The only thing I could think about was Levi's voice.

"_Oi, brat. Don't spit in my water." _


	6. Chapter 6

Erwin's tail is survey corp green. Merpeople wouldn't know of the survey corps so Levi describes it as hunter green...but know that it mean titan hunter green *ba dum tiss* (I'm sorry for my awful joke.)

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Levi POV

The water was getting too warm for a cold-water like me. I could have sworn the water was trying to slowly cook me. Ugh. The worst was that warm water merpeople got more energetic the warmer the water got, so Hanje was fucking uncontrollable. They swam around me in circles.

"Levi! Levi! Levi! Levi! Who's the human I smell on you? Levi! Levi! Levi!" They swam faster and faster around me, their golden tail stretched out behind them and their long, dark brown hair streaming behind them.

"Fucking hell! Calm down!" I growled, flicking my tail and swimming up, out of the ring they were swimming around me.

"Mr. Cold Water Grumpy Gills!" They cooed. They swam until they were in front of me. "Tell me about the human!"

"His name is Eren-"I started, swimming over to some seaweed.

"A boy! Oh! Levi! Hey, Levi! Are you gonna mate with him? You have to mate with him and then tell me all about it! Ohhhh, can I watch? For science, of course! I'll take notes when I'm not being plowed myself. Maybe we can all mate together! You, Moblit, him, me! Fun! Oh, can I ask him questions? Like why do they wear clothes? Doesn't the feel of the fabric against them mimic the feel of a lover's caress? Doesn't that fabric Eren wears in the water cause his pen-"

"I'll tell you if you'll shut the hell up." I handed the seaweed to them and they started bundling it up, tying one stalk around a group of others. "I might mate with him. I want to, but he's hesitant. If we do mate, you can't be anywhere near my cave if you still want to live. You can't watch. You can't take notes. You sure as hell can't join in. I don't think Moblit would like that anyway."

They just laughed as I gathered my seaweed. When we both had big bundles, we went over to Hanje and Moblit's cave. Moblit was outside of it, glaring at me in such close proximity to his mate.

"You know Levi only like men, dear. He isn't interested in my little agender self." Hanje assured Moblit as they swam over to him. They rubbed their golden tail against his navy one and they circled them together tightly. It was a sign to all those around that Hanje and Moblit were mated together. Moblit shivered as Hanje's tail rubbed his roughly. I scowled and waited at the cave entrance.

"Oi, mating cycle doesn't start for another day." I snapped at the lovefish.

"Which means don't touch them." Moblit hissed at me.

"I'm not interested in touching Hanje." I narrowed my eyes at him. "I know mating cycle is making even you warmies aggressive but try to control it. I'm even more aggressive than you right now, and being challenged will make me snap."

Yeah, the ever warming waters gave them lots of energy, but when they were aggressive, that energy mostly went into their pathetic little fights.

"Maybe we shouldn't weave in my cave. Maybe we should weave-" Hanje started.

"You can weave in here." Moblit said, "Just don't touch. I don't want someone else's scent on my mate."

"Understood." I nodded, then to Hanje, "Let's weave this shit."

"Tell me about the human more." Hanje said as we started our weaving. We were making seaweed pouches to gather fruit in to eat in our human forms.

"His name is Eren. He's got brown hair like yours and really, really green eyes…like Isabell's tail." I said.

"And you want to mate but he doesn't?" Hanje weaved very quickly, not that it was a hard job.

"He thinks he's too young to mate." I explained, flitting my fingers around in the silky seaweed.

"Whoa. How old is he?" They asked.

"He's 17."

"Oh. I thought he was really young…Is he ever going to mate with you?"

"Maybe…after he turns 18…something about human laws."

"Ah! So how many mating cycles will you be apart?"

"Two or three, including this one." I said, holding up my seaweed pouch and waving it around to make sure the weave held. Hanje held up theirs and did the same. Theirs was significantly larger than mine and more closely knitted. They had always been craftier than me.

"Who will you mate with this time? Erwin, like last time?" They asked.

"I don't know. I'll see who's around and pick from them."

"You're so casual about finding a mate when time is so short."

"I can have my pick of mermen. I know that." I said, flicking my gorgeous tail at them. My colorings were rare around here as gray was a typical cold water marking. It also matched my eyes and complimented my black hair. I was a very attractive merman, and I knew it. I would pick the one I mated with, and he would gladly accept.

We swam out past Moblit guarding him and his mate's cave. I rolled my eyes. Warmies thought they got oh so aggressive near mating cycle. I'd like to see their reaction to a cold water brawl. Maybe I'd talk to the only other poor cold watered bastard Ymir and put on a show one day. I wondered what the warmies would think of all the blood clouding the water. In the waters where I was born, brawls were so violent that if you weren't paying attention to where you were going, you would swim face first into so ripped out guts. Saying that cold waters were violent was an extreme understatement.

I didn't really know Ymir's story, and she didn't know mine. I'm sure she must have a fucking tragic past like mine. I mean, why the hell else would a cold-water be in a warm water climate? The only good thing about being in this hot hell hole was that no one fucked with us. Especially Ymir, since she has a rare black tail and a very long black fin. I would be lying if I said that I didn't admire it. Black colorings were typically only found in the extremely cold water climates.

"Hey, Hanje, you ever seen a cold-water brawl?" I asked as we headed out to gather fruits.

"Nah. I've seen lots of warm water brawls around here, though."

"You mean those bitch parties?" I shook my head, my black hair floating up around me. I frowned as I saw how many other merpeople were out gathering fruits. At least I could find a mate easily here though.

"Hello, Levi," Erwin purred to me as he swam up to greet us. It didn't go unnoticed to me that his back fin was extended at full height. It was a signal that he was looking for a mate. It was usually used by the more dominant partner to attract a submissive mate.

In warm waters, the biggest, strongest, most dominant merpeople had the tallest fins. They extended out farther than those of the smaller and less dominant merpeople. Cold waters lived in a harsher climate and having extremities that extended far into the cold water would just draw valuable blood away from our cores. Instead of height, our fins varied in length. More dominant merpeople tended to have longer fins. Of course, this was all in proportion to our stature…and, sadly, I was a little lacking in the height department. I had had my fair share of more dominant mermen try to force me in the past but I quickly put them in their place with my fighting skills.

I looked Erwin's fin up and down, not even hiding that I was checking him out. "You're not taken, yet?"

"I was waiting to see if you were interested." He looked back at my fin. It was extended as far as I could get it to go, which wasn't even a quarter of the way of Erwin's brilliant green display. He had a green tail, but it wasn't the beautiful turquoise color of Isabell's tail and Eren's eyes, it was a dark, hunter green that wasn't nearly as attractive.

"I am." I said, swimming closer to him. "But I am also interested in Mike."

"Mike's fin isn't even have my size. I'm a beast to mate with, a real alpha. I doubt Mike could even satisfy you since you were with me last time."

"My fin is as large as yours, old merman. Or are your eyes not working because of your old age?" Mike said from above us, swimming down to position himself between Erwin and me.

"Your fins are about the same size, so skip your pathetic warmie fight. I'd rather watch a starfish grow back its fucking limbs than watch a warmie fight. Bore me with that shit, and neither one of you get me." I snapped at them. "Keep still and let me swim around you."

They swam side by side in place, glaring at each other. I swam behind them, looking at the impressive display of their fully extended fins. Erwin's was a tad bit bigger, but Mike's dark blue tail was better looking to me, not to mention longer. In their human forms, Mike's long tail turned into a pair of long human legs that made him taller than everyone except Bertold, but he was so timid that his length was usually forgotten.

"I'm mating with Erwin again." I announced from behind them. Mike's fist clenched and Erwin smirked. "Not because Erwin's so fucking great, but because that merperson, Nanaba or whatever, has been making lovey eyes at Mike's fin for last five mating cycles and I'm tired of looking at it."

Mike and Erwin looked over to where the little Nanaba was fluttering their purple tail and trembling their fin in embarrassment.

"Oh, wow…" Mike quickly flicked his way over to Nanaba and Erwin tucked in his fin and came over to me.

"You made a good choice, Levi." He held my waist and stroked my tail with his own. Pleasure shot through me and I suppressed the not exactly innocent whine that almost came from me.

"Don't wrap your tail around me!" I hissed, swimming a little away from him. "We are not mates, we are just spending a mating cycle together!"

"Maybe one day, you'll give in and let me mate you properly. You can move into my cave, we can wrap tails and mate every cycle."

"I've got another male in mind that I want to try out, so why don't you put that idea away." I was a vicious cold water with a reputation for fighting in the cold waters.

"Another male? Who? Why don't you go mate with him?"

"He's…not available for now. I might need you next mating cycle, as well."

"So, he doesn't want you?" He looked a little too happy.

"Drop it before I show you how aggressive a cold water is before a mating cycle, warmie." I snapped. "Now help me gather what we're going to eat. Remember, you're going to need a lot more since you'll stay in human form longer than me."

"Alright, Levi." He nodded. I ignored him as I picked up my favorite sea fruits and stuffed them in my pouch, keeping my hand around it tightly so it wouldn't float away. It wasn't long before so other familiar merpeople showed up.

"Levi!" Petra called, throwing her arms around me and squeezing tightly. Olou glared at me from behind her. I leaned away from her, not enjoying the way her too warm breasts pushed against my skin, which was already too warm for my liking. Olou's scent was all over his mate and my instincts rebelled against the smell.

"Hey, Petra." I said.

"So, Hanje was just telling me about Eren…when do I get to meet him?" She said as Olou swam over and wrapped his arms around her. He wrapped his brown tail around her pretty coral one and she leaned her head and kissed his neck. Ugh. Love sick fish.

"You can meet him after this cycle is over." I promised.

"Who's Eren?" Erwin asked, slipping his own hands around my waist. Again ugh. I thought about pushing him away, but I needed his cock and I might need it next time. I still stiffed and wiggled a bit to get him to hold me looser. I don't do the lovey thing.

I thought about the way I caressed Eren so gently and the way his thighs squeezed my tail so pleasurably when he straddled me. I might be a little soft for him, that sweet brat. I would wrap tails with him and I wouldn't try to stop the moans that I knew would come.

"He's someone who I hope you will never meet." I said, grabbing Erwin's wrist and dragging him to his cave. Normally, we mated in my cave, which had more bank room, but I didn't want Erwin in Eren's spot. No. I didn't care if it was rude. I wasn't with Erwin for a loving, lasting relationship. I was with Erwin for a lust filled week. That's it.

I tossed the fruit up on the bank and Erwin held me tight from behind. My fin was forcibly pushed into my tail from his grip.

"How about I get you comfortable?" He asked, rubbing his tail hard against mine.

I relaxed against him and let him rub me. It was an intense week, to say the least.

I went straight back to my cave after my mating cycle ended and my tail formed back. I immediately sniffed around for Eren's smell, but found none. He had stayed away like I had asked him to. I told him to stay away a week, giving me two more days without him.

Why the fuck had I said a week? Ughhhhhh. I was going to be so bored with my warm water friends still banging each other's brains out and Eren gone. Maybe he would come back early… he seemed like the kind of brat to do that. I sure hoped he would.

Mating with Erwin had made something clear to me: I wanted Eren. I wanted Eren as my mate. I had severely pissed of Erwin by calling out Eren's name several times while we were mating, but, hey, in my defense, I was thinking about Eren the whole time so of course a few moans of his name slipped through. The fucking attractive brat.

He, who spit in my water, and now I wanted him to mate with me and wrap tails with me and just _be with me_.

How long could we last in a relationship, though? He was human, and I was merman. How could we actually be together? I can't live on land, and he can't live on the water.

I wondered what he said about turning into a merperson when he read that book to me… Was it really possible that ripping off one of my scales and fucking him would give him a tail and a way to be my mate? Would he even want me to be his mate? Would he even want to be a merman in the first place? It was a lot to ask… I mean, he would have to give up his family and his friends and his home…

I just wanted that brat to be _my_ brat.

* * *

So theres a look into Merpeople life :D


	7. Chapter 7

mentions of eruri and finally some action for our little virgin Eren

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Eren POV

"Sina Environmental Agents?" Mikasa raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, or just S.E.A.?" I looked between Mikasa and Armin, desperately hoping for one of them to speak up and say that they knew everything there was to know about S.E.A., but, of course, it wasn't that easy. Mikasa shook her head.

"Well, they're the authors of a couple books that my grandpa has-" Armin started.

"_Mermaids and Mermen, Mysteries of the Deep, and Fish and Fins. _But have you ever heard him say anything about it? Heard him say anything about merpeople?" I bounced my leg excitedly.

"I thought you were over mermaids." Mikasa huffed.

"I am!" I said, and it wasn't a lie. I was over mer_maids, _but I was still very, very _interested _in mer_men_. "I'm just into S.E.A. now, okay?"

"So interested that you had to puke in the ocean, start crying on the pier, and be walked home by Armin and me." Mikasa looked over me worriedly. She and Armin had found me crying on the pier as they walked home from their time in the town.

"Eren, is there something you aren't telling us?" Armin asked, reaching out and grabbing my hand.

"Guys…" I felt a lump in my throat. "I just need you to help me right now."

"Are you okay?" Mikasa asked. "We're really worried, Eren. You having nightmares again?"

"I'm okay." I ignored the last part of her comment. I didn't want to think about our mother or the way she died. My anxiety was bad enough as it was just dealing with whatever the hell this was with dad.

"Eren, please talk to us…We don't ever want a repeat of what happened when Carla died-" Armin started.

"I'm fine!" I snapped at him. "I just need you two to be there for me right now. I'm dealing with some shit. Some stuff happened. I don't want to talk about it."

"Just…" Mikasa sighed. "Is your life in danger?"

"No." I answered. "Of course not."

"Is it a bully? Is Jean fucking with you again? Do you need Mika-" Armin rubbed soothing circles on my hand.

"No! It's not that kind of situation." I bit my lip as Mikasa and Armin looked at each other. I would have to give them something before they started looking into it and found everything.

"There's this guy…" I said quietly, my cheeks heating up. Mikasa frowned and Armin looked confused.

"Is he mean to you?" Mikasa asked. "Is he why you're sad?"

"No! It's just… I have…feelings for him." I looked at Armin for help. I had always told him about my crushes, but not always with Mikasa.

"What kind of feelings?" Mikasa asked, drawing my attention to her.

"Gay ones." I said simply. She rose an eyebrow and Armin laughed.

"He's got relationship problems, Mikasa. He's going to be fine." Armin smiled at us.

"Who is it?" Mikasa tucked her chin into her scarf.

"It's…It's not anyone you two know, okay? I can't really talk about. I mean, we aren't even boyfriends, yet."

"Yet." Mikasa and Armin said at the same time.

"Look, we don't even need to talk about him. We need to talk about S.E.A., because apparently it has something to do with-"

"This boy? Eren, whatever is going on with your crush and with S.E.A. made you so upset you literally puked. Eren, I'll respect that you want space, but if he hurt you, please tell me. Please, if you _need_ us, tell us. Don't let what happened when mom died happen again-"

"It's not that, Mikasa." I felt myself getting pulled into the memory of what I did that night. _Cold. So very cold. _"I-It's about dad."

"Grisha?" Armin asked.

"Yeah." I crossed my arms over my chest as I threatened to slip back into memories again. "Also, your grandpa."

"My grandpa? Cal Arlert?" Armin looked shocked. I nodded weakly.

"What the hell does Dad and Armin's grandpa have to do with S.E.A.?" Mikasa asked.

"That's the thing, guys. I don't know! I went to the library and met a woman who said that dad was the fucking president of S.E.A. and before that it was Armin's grandpa-"

"What woman?" Armin asked.

"The librarian, Dorothy, she told me all about S.E.A. She told me about this-" I stopped myself. I was going to say mermaid, but I didn't want to tip Mikasa and Armin off. "-this man Dotty, er, Dot Pixis, who might be able to tell me what I want to know."

"Are you going to see him soon?" Armin asked nervously, "Can you ask him about Grandpa? The woman must be confused. Grandpa dabbles in this and that, but I've never heard about S.E.A. beyond those books."

"I might go to see him." I gave Mikasa a quick look, judging her reaction. She seemed concerned, but not like she would stop me. I looked back at Armin. "Can I borrow that book? The _Mysteries of the Deep_ one, I mean. The _Fish and Fins_ is over my head."

"Sure. I'm sorry I can't get you the journal, though."

"Journal?" I asked. The library never mentioned a journal.

"Yeah. There's this journal. It's got a bunch of, like, observations of a mermaid written down. Handwritten, too."

"Your grandfather's handwriting?" I got excited.

"It's not a handwriting I recognize. It's legible, though. I started reading it one day, but when my grandfather found me with it, he took it away. I don't know where he put it. He was so angry." Armin shook his head. "I don't understand it. It was just a bunch of stuff about this little blond haired, pink tailed mermaid."

"Pink tail…" I mumbled. I thought about what Levi said about his little sister with the green tail. To think that my dad was involved in that made me sick again. I put a hand to my rolling stomach.

"Eren?" Mikasa put a hand on my back and rubbed. "Are you going to be sick again?"

"I- I don't know." I admitted.

"Is this-," Armin hesitated, then continued. "On the pier, and even now, is this a physical sick, like a virus? Or an emotional sick?"

"I'll be fine." I stood, holding my stomach. "I just need to sleep."

I wasn't tired, but I needed to leave them. This was getting to be too much. I needed Levi's company. I started walking back up to the house, Armin and Mikasa on my heels. I wrapped up everything with them quickly, promising Mikasa I would eat as soon as I woke and Armin that I would call him if I needed anything, and then went up to my bed.

I checked the clock to find it only four in the afternoon. Too soon to visit Levi. I curled up in my bed and wished these thoughts swirling viciously in my head would stop. I needed to stop thinking about Dad, about where he was and what he was doing. I just needed peace, and the only way I could think to get it would be to sleep. Curling in tighter on myself, I wondered how long I would have to lay here until my mind finally quieted enough for me to sleep.

I groaned and sat up, digging a hand in the nightstand for the sleeping pills I knew where there. One or two wouldn't hurt me. I dry swallowed the pills and laid back down. I did some breathing exercises that I was taught in the therapy I got after what happened when mom died. I put my hands on my stomach and felt it moved up and down with my every breath. I focused on relaxing my limbs one by one and fell asleep slowly…

"_Mommy!" I cried, putting my hand on her grave. I sobbed violently, my body bending over with the weight of my sorrow. I was so empty, so cold. So very cold. I pressed my forehead to her gravestones and stayed there, frozen. _

"_I miss you." I cried, my voice broken. It had been a week since her death, and it still cut me just as deep as the minute I learned the news. Gone. Gone. Gone. She was gone. Gone. Gone. Gone. _

_I dug my fingers into the earth of her grave and cried until my eyes could no longer spill tears. When my sobs turned dry, the sky ripped open and poured rain down, as if it were crying for me. I stayed there until I was soaked to the bone. _

_I just wanted the earth to open up and swallow me like it did her. I wondered if I stayed here long enough if it would. _

"_It should have been me." I sobbed. "It should have been me." My fault. My fault. My fault. My fault. _

I gasped awake. I sat up quickly and felt the tears threatening to spill. I gritted my teeth against them and started my breathing exercise once again. Breathe in and start the count at one hundred. Breathe out and subtract four. Over and over. If I hit zero, I was instructed to start over and do it again and again until calm.

I did it twice before I had calmed down enough to get up. I paced uneasily over my floors. There was only thing that would completely calm me down, and it wasn't numbers. I looked at my clock to find it nine; I had only been asleep for five hours. It wasn't quite late enough for me to go to him.

"_Fuck me_." I hissed. I would have to do something else. Fuck me. If I couldn't have Levi just yet, then I would have to find another coping skill. I opened my door to go downstairs and find something to cope with when I heard a much unexpected voice. A much unexpected and unwelcome voice.

"…I mean, if you're into that, and all." He said and I bristled.

"I think I need to stay here with Eren for right now." Mikasa replied, her voice tired.

"Just dinner and a mo-"He stopped as I stomped down the stairs and glared at him, arms crossed. He was standing in the middle of the living room, tea and cookies on the table behind them. So, Mikasa had been entertaining him.

"Yeager." He nodded at me, shifting away from Mikasa a bit. I hated how they were standing so close to each other.

"Kirstein." I growled. "What the fuck do you want?"

"None of your fucking buis-"He started.

"He came here to ask me out." Mikasa sighed. "Again."

"She's not interested." I sneered. "Beat it."

"Maybe you should let her decide for herself." Jean walked up to me and tilted his head down. Oh, he was fucking asking for it.

"Mikasa. Isn't. Interested." I punctuated each word with a shove to his chest. I knew I was starting a fight, but I was still feeling uneasy and beating the shit out of horseface might just be what I needed until I could get to Levi.

"Don't touch me, Yeager!" He looked at me darkly.

"Boys! Stop this!" Mikasa stepped forward and put a hand on each of our shoulders. She gave us both stern looks. "Before I end it."

"Leave my sister alone. I know 100% that she doesn't want you."

"Oh, really? Scared she's gonna like me more than you?" Jean jerked out of Mikasa's grasp. "Why don't we go outside?"

"Jean!" Mikasa snapped. "I don't like boys!"

"You hear that Yeager? She doesn't like- Wait, what?" He looked at her, utterly confused. I threw my head back and laughed hard, the sound booming and rude in the room.

"She like girls, you asshat!" I pointed at his confused horseface and laughed.

"You-You're a lesbian?" Jean whipped around to face Mikasa.

"Yes." Mikasa shot me a look.

"No, you're not." Jean shook his head. "You're pretty and you look like a girl and- Where's the plaid?" He looked up and down Mikasa.

"Are you fucking serious?" I said angrily. "Don't tell me you are that fucking ignorant. You actually believe stereotypes?"

"Jean. I think you should go now." Mikasa said, taking her hand off of me and putting both of them on him.

"I just- Maybe you haven't found the right guy? Maybe once you get a taste of the Jean Meat-" He brought one hand up dangerously close to Mikasa's breast as he grabbed her scarf and tickled her nose with the end of it.

I don't know if it was my punch, or Mikasa's, (most likely Mikasa's, but I liked to pretend it was a 50/50 chance it was mine), that put him on his back. He screamed and curled up, holding his stomach with one hand and his nose with the other. I felt my adrenaline run high as I grabbed his shirt collar and punched him in the face over and over. It took a minute to gather himself before he started reacting back, fighting me. I felt pain explode on the right side of my bottom lip and increased the ferocity of my fighting. It was on the verge of a brawl when Mikasa intervened.

"Eren!" Mikasa screamed. She hauled me off of him and held me away from him as he got to his feet again.

"Yeager!" Jean screamed, spitting out blood on our floor. "Let's go!"

"Get out!" Mikasa held up a fist and the color drained out of Jean's face. He scrambled out of the house and I laughed at him running away.

"That was entirely uncalled for." Mikasa turned to me. "It didn't have to end in a fight."

"He insulted you and he touched your scarf near your, you know, lady part thingys." I wiped the blood off of my busted lip with the back of my hand, accidently tasting the blood on it in my mouth. I frowned, wondering if the blood on my hand was Jean's or mine or both. Whatever. It didn't really matter.

"I know you can't stand-"

"Hate!" I called.

"I know you hate Jean, but, Eren, that shit didn't have to happen. Please, calm yourself down." She paused. "Does this have something to do with S.E.A. or that boy you like?"

"No. This has to do with a certain horse that keeps pushing up on my sister." I smiled at her. "What kind of brother would I be if I didn't fuck him up?"

"Eren." She pursed her lips. "Just do whatever you need to to be okay."

"The same goes for you, sister. Anything you need to be okay, let me know." I moved to hug her, but she stepped away.

"Go clean up before you come to me for a hug." She smiled at me, adjusting her scarf to where it was pre-fight.

"Sure. I'm gonna shower…" I looked at the clock. It was late enough. Finally. "Then I'm going to bed."

"Mmmhmmm…" She nodded. "I'm going to stay down here for a little while. Do you need help with your lip?"

"Nah. It isn't the first time Jean has given me a busted lip and I doubt it will be the last." I laughed as I went up the stairs.

I actually did shower, since tonight I would be seeing Levi for the first time since mating cycle and I knew he liked things clean. I winced as I had to wash my face, but did it anyway. I day dreamed about Levi all through my shower and while I got dressed. God, I was getting excited.

I did my usual routine of giving Mikasa the slip before I headed down to the cove. The water stung on my busted lip but soon the pain went away, my body acclimating. I had almost forgot about Levi's plan to start meeting me near the surface until he swam up beside me. He entered my peripheral vision suddenly on my left and I awkwardly fumbled away from him in surprise, thrashing about unattractively. Thankfully, though, I kept my air. Levi made an amused face and looped an arm around me, pulling me to the surface.

"Why do you smell like that?" He asked as soon as we broke through.

"What?" I said in between pants of getting my breathing back to normal.

"You smell like a-" He stopped, his eyes narrowing in my lip. "What happened there?"

"Got in a fight." I didn't even try to hold myself up because I knew his strong arms and tail would take care of us.

"With your human brother?" He asked.

"Sister. I have a sister." I corrected. "Can I tell you the story in your cave? I'd like to have a seat if I'm going to talk for a while."

"Fine." He barley gave me enough time to get myself ready before we were diving. He held my wrist tight and I held his. I watched his tail move as he swam us in. It was so memorizing to watch the muscle work and the scales glimmer different tints of gray. I couldn't decide if I liked the green gray scales more or the blue gray scales more. Both ways, they were Levi's scales, so I loved them all.

I didn't even notice that we were in his cave until he pushed me above the surface, holding me under the armpits like a child, and sitting me on the bank. I laid down on the sand and caught my breath.

"Why do you smell like that?" He demanded again.

"Smell like what?" I whispered, rolling onto my stomach and propping my head up on my arms a few inches away from him. I moved in for a kiss and he moved back.

"What?" I said. He narrowed his eyes.

"You smell like another man. If it's not a human brother, then who is it?" His jaw tensed. "I know we aren't…exclusively together. Hell, I just had mating cycle. But…I am surprised."

"What the actual fuck are you talking about? I don't smell like another man, Levi! I've been with Mikasa and – Oh, is it Armin you smell? My male human friend?"

"You mean that weak, weak male scent that is all over that book?"

"Yeah. That's Armin's book-"

"It isn't Armin." He leaned forward and put his elbows on the bank, too, coming more out of the water and staring at me hard. "If you have a human lover, fine, just-"

"I don't! I've only been around Mikasa, Armin, the librarian, and Horseface-_ Oh._" My eyebrows shot up. "If I got in a fight and we both drew blood, would that leave his scent on me?"

"Yes." Levi blinked at me. "Did you draw his blood in a fight?"

"Yes." I pointed to my lip, "He did this to me."

"Would you like me to eat him?" Levi cocked his head to the side, bringing a hand up and stroking my cheek.

"Sure, Levi, knock yourself out." I laughed.

"Push him into the water tomorrow night around the-"Levi started.

"Wait! You're serious?" I startled back from him a bit. "You eat people?"

"Sometimes." Levi paused. "They taste amazing. I have only had them a few times in my life, and that was all up north. Humans typically get eaten up north, where the thinner food supply forces some cold waters to eat them. However, at the same time, we have to limit how much human we eat so we don't go blood crazy."

"Blood crazy?" I asked him. That did not sound good.

"Yeah. It's exactly what it sounds like. If you eat human and nothing but human eventually you can't just go back to eating fish and fruit. Your body can run off of those things, but your mind…" He shook his head. "It will always want blood."

"You-You guys like blood?"

"Mmmm…" His eye darkened as his hand slipped to my lip. He licked his lips and then drew them back, exposing the bloody tip of his tongue in between his white teeth. My heart jumped into my throat as Levi pulled my hurt lip into his mouth. I felt the tingles and the fire in my lip and I melted. I moved my tingling lips against him, bringing my body to the side and then slipping my legs into the water and getting closer to him.

He reached up to my hips and pulled me into the water in one single motion. He pushed me up against the bank, wrapping one arm around me to keep me pressed hard against his chest. He lower his lips from my mouth to my neck and I couldn't help but moan.

"L-Levi!" I wrapped my legs around his waist and he growled into my neck. I gasped and arched up, feeling my lower half brush against his. Heat curled in my belly and I felt need rise up in me.

"Levi! Please!" I whimpered, loving the feeling of his mouth on my neck. He nipped at my soft skin and I dug my hands down his slippery skin, trying to find purchase on his back. I had to communicate that I needed more, but I just couldn't form words. The sounds coming out of my mouth were just moans. He pulled back from my neck an inch to murmur into my neck.

"I want you to mate with me next time." Levi sucked hard on my flesh and a lewd noise came from my throat. "I need you."

"I-I need you right now." I tangled my hand into the wet mess of his black hair and tugged him so he would look at me. "Please, touch me."

"It's not mating cy-" His brows furrowed.

"Just touch! I know you can't fuck me right now, but please, Levi. It's not good in my head right now. Please, just for right now, be with me." I begged him.

"Kneel on the bank." He order, practically throwing me onto it. I gulped as I kneeled in front of him. His face was so close to my erection…Was he planning on giving me my first blowjob?

"Take those things off." He held the bank with his hands and licked his lips, looking at the bulge in my trunks. Oh fuck, he was going to suck me off.

"O-Okay." I hooked my thumbs under the band of the trunks. He heard the stutter in my voice and looked up at me.

"Relax, Eren." His voice was gentle. "I'm just going to taste that cute cock. You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

"Y-Yes." My face felt like it was on fire.

"Then give it to me." His eyes were so dark, and the lust I found there gave me a little confidence. I pulled down the trunks and felt embarrassed at how hard I was already. He eyed me up and down and a small smile pulled at his lips. I squeaked in embarrassment, covering my face. I heard him chuckle darkly before I felt his lips on me.

"Holy shit!" My hands flew away from my face and I looked down to see his head bobbing up and down on me. His mouth was hot and wet and he sucked me _so fucking well._ My head fell back and I started thrusting my hips forward. I thrust deeper and deeper into his throat, my hands coming up to his hair and holding him where I wanted him.

"_Fuuuuck_," I moaned, feeling my orgasm already curling in my belly. How I got caught up in my own pleasure when he gagged around me and pushed me back a bit. I growled, my desire to be rough with him sharpening. I thrust hard into him and he gagged again. I whimpered at the sensation.

"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck." I wasn't going to last long. I tugged on his hair in my excitement and he growled. The vibrations went all the way through me and that was all it took. I made a choking scream as I tensed, hunching over him and holding him on me. I spilled my cum in his mouth, not letting up until I passed out on the sand. I heard him spit before he started growling at me.

"Nasty shit." He swam grabbed my arm and tugged it. "Don't cum in my mouth again. I don't like it."

"Sorry." I panted, feeling tired from my first sexual experience.

"Damn, are you going to cum this soon when we mate?" He pulled harder on my arm and pulled my trunks before laying on my side facing him. My cheeks heated up.

"It was my first blow job, okay?" I said softly. "I wasn't expecting it to feel so good." I couldn't look at him. I had cum way too soon, and it made me feel like a kid.

"I'm glad you liked it. Be a little gentler next time, okay?" He stroked my face a bit. "I like your cock. It's just the right size for me. We can practice on you lasting longer. I'll teach you sex, just like I taught you kissing."

"God damn it," I squeaked, twisting my face up. He ran his fingers over my face, smoothing out all the twisted parts.

"I didn't last that long my first blow job, either." He hesitated. "Will you mate with me?"

"Yes," I opened my eyes and focused on his face. "I'll mate with you."

"Next month, I mean…" He ran his hand down to my waist and let it rest there. I thought it over for a few tense minutes while Levi looked like he was growing increasingly uncomfortable. On one hand, we had my dad as a possible merperson hunter and that couldn't mean anything good for my relationship with Levi. On the other hand, days and days of hot, wild sex with Levi. God, I wondered what mating cycle would be like with him. I remembered his past mating cycle and I reached out a touched his face.

"How was your mating cycle?" I asked, and he grew even tenser.

"Uneventful."

"Who did you mate with?" I hadn't considered it my business before because we weren't boyfriends, just two guys with chemistry that made out, but now I wanted him as my boyfriend.

"A merman named Erwin."

"Do you love him?"

"No." He didn't hesitate. Good.

"If we mate together, I don't just want to spend a mating cycle with you. I want us to be together. _Boyfriends_. That means no more Erwin or anyone."

" If I was with you, I wouldn't need them. You would spend mating cycle with me." Levi squeezed my waist. "Wouldn't you?"

"In the fall that means I'll have to take off from school, but I'm sure I can figure it out." I smiled and laid my hand on his.

"Good, because I'm biologically compelled to do this. It's like our brains turn off and our dicks turn on." He looked me in the eyes. "Does this mean you'll be my mate, er, boyfriend?"

"Yes." I smiled at him. "And you'll be mine."

"Yes." He sounded a little unsteady, and I didn't like that.

"Something wrong?"

"I'm not a romantic. I might be shit at this." He sighed.

"I'll teach you to be romantic, like you teach me to, uh-"

"Fuck?" He lifted one black eyebrow.

"Yeah." I moved as he started to come up on the bank, tucking his fin in and rolling over onto his back.

"We're going to do it in every position all over this bank. You understand me, boyfriend?" He gestured for me to climb on top of him. "This cave is going to be filled with the sounds of your orgasms. I'll teach you so much."

"Damn it, Levi, don't get me riled up, again. We have bullshit to discuss." I shook my head at his tempting lap.

"What's more important than me making out with my new boyfriend? If it's your dick you're worried about, I'm more than happy to-"

"Do you know a pink tailed mermaid?" I had to get him on subject before I ended up naked again.

"Pink tailed mermaid? Why did you meet someone?" He rolled over, stretching his fin out and propping his head up like he usually did.

"No, Remember S.E.A.? Apparently they captured a pink tailed mermaid a long time ago. I was hoping you would know something about it."

"Krista?" His eyebrows shot up. "She's pink-tail and was captured a bit ago, but then showed back up. Ever since then, Ymir has run off anyone who got close to her. They're mates."

"When did she get captured?"

"Like forty years ago. It happened just before I moved down here, so I missed it. Hanje has blabbed all about it, though."

Wait. He moved down here thirty years ago. I looked over him and decided he didn't look a day over twenty-five.

"Um, how old are you?" I asked him, side tracked from Krista.

"Seventy-two." He cocked his head. "Why?"

"You are not seventy-two." I laughed. "Quit jerking me around." I did not just get a blow job from a seventy-two year old merman.

"We don't age like humans do, brat." He rolled his eyes. "Why? Does that matter to you?"

"Yo-you're not joking? You really are that old?" I gasped. "Levi you are old as balls!"

"What?" His eyebrows came together. "Old as balls-What?"

"The book never mentioned that you guys are old as fuck!" I sat up, causing him to tilt his chin up to look at me.

"Does that bother you that I'm older? For fucks sakes, Eren, it shouldn't matter. I'm not even that old."

"How long do you merpeople live?" I stared down at him.

"Depends, obviously. Usually warm waters live to nearly two hundred-"

"Fuck!"

"Don't humans usually live to ninety or so? It's not that much longer, so hush. Now, cold waters don't live as long. Usually, we only get a human life span. Not that we can't live as long as the warm waters do. It's just that usually don't."

"Why?"

"Violence, mostly. My sister was only twenty –nine when we was hunted. Practically a newborn." His voice carried emotion in it like I hadn't seen before. Anger and disgust. I didn't like it. I laid down on my back and allowed him to lay his head on my chest. I stroked it, wishing to comfort him.

"Let's talk about Krista. The librarian told me she was a little girl with a pink tail." I debated on whether or not to tell him about my dad. It would probably be best to keep it a secret for now.

"Librarian?"

"I went to the library looking for information to help us."

"Library?"

Of course he wouldn't know that word. I smacked myself mentally. "A place full of books that humans go to for information."

"Hanje would love that. They might be the closest thing we have to a library. They do all kinds of experiments and make up all these plans to lure a human to them and change them into a merperson so they have someone to ask questions-"

"You can actually change a human into a merperson?" I interrupted him, once again getting sidetracked.

"I actually don't know. It's never happened that I've seen with my own eyes, but Hanje says it is true about the scale and the mating and all that." He sounded nervous.

"Could you make me into a merman?" Then I quickly added, "Just for example."

"Possibly." He swallowed hard. "Is that something you think you might want?"

"Possibly." I repeated what he had said. God, my head was so full. Levi, Dad, Armin's grandpa, Dot, Dorothy, Armin, Mikasa, Krista, Hanje…_my mom_. It was too much to think about at once. My anxiety started rising and I tensed.

"Hey," Levi picked up his head and looked at me. "It's okay. You don't have to-"

It was getting bad in my head again. I needed something. I needed stress relief. I needed Levi.

"Can I touch your tail?" I blurted out before thinking about it. The look on his face was enough to tell me I had probably just fucked up.

* * *

*screams about needed to cope really badly because I've just been offered my doc again and I'm struggling to stay clean* so yeah, as writing about these dorks is my coping skill, expect a hell of a lot more updates in the next little bit while I struggle to remain in control of myself. :D


	8. Chapter 8 Part 1

This is not the whole chapter! I don't trust my saving system right now, so in order to know 100% that I won't lose my work, I'm publishing it. I have to go do a thing and then I'll finish this! Consider this part one, I guess.

* * *

Levi POV

_Eren. Eren's hands running up and down my tail. Eren straddling me from behind and reaching forward to massage my gills. Eren pulling my hair and whispering in my ears, telling me all the dirty, nasty things he wants to do with me. Eren getting naked and pressing himself all over my tail. Eren rolling me over and jerking himself off all over me. Eren kissing and licking and massaging my tail. Eren touching me. Eren. Eren. Eren. _

"Are you upset?" He whispered tensely.

"No." My voice was thicker now, full of lust. God, it was almost pathetic how much I wanted him.

"Y-you sure?" He paused. "Your fin is trembling."

"I'm horny." I had to admit it.

"Oh." Then a moment later, his voice perked up. "_Oh._"

He started toward me, sitting next to me. His hand enter my peripheral vision and I squeezed my eyes shut. Eren's warm skin pressed against my nape before he ran it down my back next to my fin. Tingles shot down my spine and a needful heat started curling in my belly. He paused at the base of my tail where my fin stopped. He waited a few moments while my breathing increased before finally, _finally_, touching my tail.

"_Fuck_," I moaned. His touch had been so gentle, so hesitant, but it still made my whole body hum in a warm pleasure. I hated it when the temperature rose, but fuck me I loved this kind of heat.

Eren's breathing hitched before his hand left me. I bit back a whimper of disapproval before he explained why.

"I think we should stop." He caught his breath for a moment. "I don't think I can handle...handle _hearing that _and not being able to - to, you know."

"Fuck." I put my head down on my arms.

"Yeah." He said awkwardly. "That."

"There are other things we can do, you know." I suggested.

"I-We- Can we just cuddle? And talk?" He stretched out on his back next to me. "Is that… okay? We can do… other things closer to mating time."

"Cuddle?" I asked. I hated how I was so ignorant of his world.

"Yeah. Cuddle. Snuggle. Just being together and touching." He was smiling at me when I lifted my head to look at him.

"Just being together and touching? That sounds a lot like mating."

"Not quite." He laughed a bit. "I'll show you. Tuck in your fin and roll over."

I did as he said and he scooted closer and closer until he laid his head on my chest with one of his legs on my tail. I tensed up, not really knowing what was going on. Was he going to get on top of me? Was he going to act out my fantasies with me?

"Now put your arms around me." He sighed.

I wrapped my arms around him and rested my hands on his back, ignoring the light dusting of sand that stuck to it. His skin was so warm and comforting. Touching him made me feel like maybe the world wasn't so bad. Maybe the merpeople hunters would disappear and maybe Eren would figure out what was going on with himself and his family. Maybe everything will work out.

"Mmm… you smell good." Eren sniffed me. "Just like the sea."

"You smell good, as well. You smell like when I'm basking on a rock and sun has warmed the water and land so much that smells of each melt together and are indistinguishable." I ran my hands through his now drying hair.

"Mmpphh!" He made a little noise and pressed his face into my side. I could feel it heating up.

"What?"

"Lev! You can't just say such romantic things."

"It's makes me all… I don't know… blushy and tingly." He admitted.

"Oh…" I smirked. "I like it when you blood rush, though, and the tingles-" I stopped as a scent came to me over the water.

_Male. In my territory. Near my mate._

"Get off!" I let Eren go.

"Levi?" He sat up, looking hurt and confused. I could explain later, right now it was time to defend my territory.

"Get off of me! Stay on the bank! Don't get in the water for any reason!" I let loose a growl that vibrated both of our chests and Eren scrambled away from me. I rolled over and pushed myself into the water while extending my fin as far as I could get it.

I submerged myself and spun around, swimming so hard away from the bank that I banged my tail on a rock. It barely even registered. Right now, I was one step away from fight mode. The only thoughts in my head was that I needed to keep Eren safe and that it had better not be Erwin. I got to the entrance of my cave and then dashed out. There was a movement to my right and I bared my teeth and spun around.

Moblit swam in front of me, glanced at my aggressive state and then extended his fin and growled. Big mistake, warmie. I could rip him apart before he even knew what hit him. This is my territory, and therefore it is my responsibility to defend it and my right to decide what that means.

We started circling around each other, keeping our tails close to our bodies. They were an easy and fleshy target to hit. My mind was going a million miles an hour, analyzing his every move and comparing it to things I had seen in the cold waters.

"Levi! Wooohooooo! I didn't know so much sea fruit grew right here!" Hanje swam into our circle, facing me, completely unafraid. I looked at their smiling face and hands full of sea fruit before I remembered that Moblit was Hanje's mate, and Hanje would not want him harmed.

"Get him to relax." I ground out, jerking my head toward Moblit. Hanje winked.

"Moblie, baby, put that fin up and act like a good fish, okay?" Hanje said. Moblit grunted and reluctantly put his fin up. I did the same.

"Sorry, Hanje. I was with my mate when I smelled and male, and, well, you know how that goes."

Hanje tipped their head back and laughed. "I sure do!"

"So, what do you want, anyway? I was cuddling with Eren." I crossed my arms.

"I want to see him! I want to see, Eren!"

"Of course you do." I sighed.


	9. Chapter 8 Part 2

Part two! I think I found a way to save my work, so there shouldn't be any more two part chapters

* * *

"_So, what do you want, anyway? I was cuddling with Eren." I crossed my arms._

"_I want to see him! I want to see, Eren!"_

"_Of course you do." I sighed. _

Eren POV

"Don't freak out. Don't freak out. Don't freak out." I sat on the bank, staring at the water for any signs of Levi. My mind was coming up with all these scenarios in which Levi was hurt or killed by some large, underwater predator. What if he was locked in a deadly battle with a shark? Or another merperson? Or something worse?

Levi had told me to not come in the water for any reason, but I couldn't just sit on the bank while he was getting hurt. I kneeled on the bank and looked into the water. I dipped my hand in experimentally, half expecting something to grab it. My heart pounded in my ears as my adrenaline rushed. I had to go in.

The water was just as familiar as it had always been; However, this time I took no comfort in it. I thrashed around in the water, looking all around me. My eyes still stung from the water, but I pressed on. I swam toward the entrance of the cave, my blood rushing so much I could feel my heartbeat in my teeth. I scanned around the best I could, but I still didn't see it until it was right on top of me.

_A flash of gold to the right! A flash of brown to the left! Directly in front! Brown! Wait a minute… are those? _

Two very warm and squishy things pressed up against my chest and something wrapped around my waist. I recognized the feeling from anytime I had gotten a hug from any of my female friends. Of course, they always wore shirts. These things on me were… they… were…

"Boobs!" I screamed, but it came out more like a series of bubbles as my air was rushing out of me and water rushing in. _Stupid, stupid, stupid._ Why did I do that? I tried to see around what I guessed was long brown hair floating in the water, but I couldn't. I had almost started to panic when suddenly it was gone.

Black replaced brown and Levi's flat chest replaced boobs. His arms locked around me and we started to rise. I was safe. For now, anyway. I still didn't know who that girl was or why she had her… thingies pressed up against me.

I started sputtering as soon as we surfaced. Levi swam me over to the bank and pushed me up on it. I coughed and sucked in air as Levi started his lecture.

"_Brat!" _He yelled. "_I told you to stay up here!" _

"L-Levi! I had to make sure you were okay!" I finished hacking and sat up. "I didn't know what was going on and-"

"And you could have been killed! What if it was an aggressive merperson who wanted to fight? Huh? You think you can be _any _help at all, then?"

"I have to try!" Tears started welling up in my eyes, from my stressed out and emotional state, or from the salt water, I couldn't say.

"Why? Just listen to me and stay out-" Levi rose out of the water and narrowed his eyes at me.

"Because I love you! I love you, you jerk!" I wiped at my face and the sand from my hands stuck to my face, irritating my eyes further. I started crying now. I told myself it was just my body trying to get sand and salt out of my eyes, but I knew better. I was stressed out and approaching to the point where I just needed to sit down and cry. "I love you and I want you safe."

"Eren." Levi sounded frustrated, but no longer angry. "What is that you're doing? That water from your eyes- _Eren?_" Levi scooped up so water and washed my face.

"Awwww!" A voice came from across the cave. I jerked my head to it while Levi just frowned.

A merperson was in the middle of Levi's cave. I saw the long dark brown hair and recognized her as the girl from before.

"Her!" I pointed at her. "She put her….. thingies on me!"

"Not a girl." Levi muttered at the same time the merperson called out "They/ them, please."

"Oh. Sorry." I felt bad for misgendering them.

"Just don't let it happen again." They swam towards us then joined Levi. Both Levi and the new merperson climbed up on the bank. Levi laid on his stomach and propped his head up while the new merperson tucked in their fin and rolled over to lay beside him.

"Ohhh! That feels funny." They commented.

"You don't have to lay like that." Levi grumbled.

"I said 'funny' not 'bad', Mr. Grumpy Gills." They looked over at me. I tried to rip my eyes away from their breasts but I couldn't. My face just kept getting redder and redder. "Hi, Eren. I'm Hanje."

Oh. So this is Hanje, the mad scientist Levi had been telling me about. Shit. I had better get a hold of myself. I mean, I've seen breasts before, but that was just in books. I don't have a computer, so I've never watched any porn or anything, so I've never seen breasts in a sexual way. I've certainly never seen any in real life. Then, boom, here they are. I wasn't attracted to them or anything, it was just… _different. _

"So, Eren, first time seeing boobs, or what? I can shake them for you." Hanje laughed.

"Hanje!" Levi hissed. Hanje just laughed.

"I'm so sorry!" I covered my face with my hands.

"If he's like this now, wait til he meets Petra! She has huge tits." Hanje teased.

"Are you okay?" Levi asked.

"Yeah. I just...Girls usually -" I started, then remembered Hanje and my other transgender friends, "People with breasts usually keep them covered up in the human world."

"Why?" Hanje looked puzzled.

"They are considered sexual." I removed my hands and looked only at Levi's face.

"They make food for babies! Why are they sexual?" Hanje moved in my peripheral vision and I looked over to see them playing with their breasts. I looked quickly back to Levi, who was raising an eyebrow.

"So are you still homosexual, brat?" He asked.

"Yes! I don't want to have sex with Hanje!-" I started.

"Ah!" Hanje cried in disappointment.

"-I just… am not used to this, okay?"

"He better not want to fuck Hanje." A voice came over the water. I cried out in surprise and Levi rolled his eyes. I looked out across the water and saw a head disappear below the water.

"My mate Moblit. He's scared of humans. He doesn't want you looking at him." Hanje explained.

"Get out of here, Moblit. My mate can't even handle seeing titties, so he's obviously not a threat." Levi called out. My body warmed at hearing him call me his mate. _Mate. _I was Levi's mate.

I smiled big and moved closer to Levi. He looked over at me and leaned down to kiss the top of his head. It was damp and left a trace of saltwater on my lips. I licked them and smiled. The taste of saltwater was now forever connected to Levi in my head. Hanje laughed. Levi growled.

"Brat, if you want to kiss me, kiss my lips. Don't kiss my head like I'm some kind of small child." Levi tilted his head up and wrapped his hand around my neck, putting pressure on it so I would go down. I kissed him softly at first, aware of our company, but when he licked at my lips, I melted. I laid down next to him and he took control of the kiss. He kissed me deeply and my body reacted. I moaned softly into his mouth and he moved off of me.

"No, don't stop!" Hanje and I said at the same time. I looked at Hanje to see them struggling to sit up, something not possible unless Hanje wanted to break their fin, in order to see more clearly.

"I am not putting on a show for you, Hanje, and neither is he."

"But I'm curious!" Hanje whined.

"Then be curious about something else. Like the shit Eren is dealing with." Levi grumbled. I was confused for a second before I remember all my troubles on dry land.

"Hanje is trustworthy?" I looked over at Levi.

"They wouldn't be here if they weren't."

I explained everything about S.E.A. and my father to Hanje. They listened closely, humming occasionally.

"Then it's obvious. Your first step to visit Ol' Dotty!" Hanje was right. Tomorrow, I would visit Dot Pixis.


	10. Chapter 9

Eren POV

"Eren Davis here to see Dotty- uh, I mean Dot Pixis." I drummed my fingers on the nursing home counter, slightly paranoid that the receptionist would call me out on my fake last name.

"Uh-huh." She didn't even look up at me, continuing to shuffle her papers. "He's in C-4."

"O-kay."

"The right hallway, four rooms down." She sounded bored, monotone.

"Thanks." I shoved my hands in my pockets as I walked away. My anxiety started rising. What would he think? Would he even talk to me? Should I have brought a notepad to write down important information? No...that's way too formal. I don't want to make him feel like I'm interrogating him.

The door to Dot's room as slightly open, and I knocked on it a bit. Inside, there was a shuffle and bit of coughing. He cursed a little it before barking at me to come in. I pushed the door a bit and it swung open. He sat next to the window in a small recliner. His bed was messy, piled up with books and blankets. It reminded me of Armin, so I decided to approach him like I would Armin.

"Hey, buddy. Whatcha reading?" I smiled as I walked over to him. His head snapped over to me, and he scowled deeply.

"GMILF weekly. What's it to you?" His deep voice was strong and almost militaristic. I blinked at him for a moment.

"Jesus, kid. I'm joking! Sit down. Tell me all about this school project that requires you to interview some old fart." He looked past me out the door. "And shut that thing a bit."

I closed the door to the position it was in before I entered and then started looking around for a seat. "Uhhh…."

"Just plop down on the bed. You ain't getting my window." He squinted at me. "Do I know your folks or something? You look at bit familiar."

"No! I'm Eren Davis." I sat down on his bed.  
"Uh-huh. So which school you go to? There ain't any other youngsters crawling the building. Gonna be a lot of 'F's."

"This isn't for school. It's...personal."

"You ain't my kid, if this is where it's going." He sighed.

"No… that's not it at all. I want to talk about…" God, this sounded ridiculous. "Mermaids."

He squinted hard at me before reaching a hand into his shirt and pulling out a flask.

"What did you say your name was again?"

"Eren Davis." I shuffled a bit on his soft bed.

"Well, Davis, I don't know nothing about mermaids." He uncapped his flask and took a hard swig before putting it back in his shirt.

"I, uh, was sent here." I said, and his eyebrows shot up. "By Dorothy. At the library. We talked a bit and she said you could help me."

"Dorothy." He sighed. "I never could tell my baby sister 'no'. Alright, kid, what do you want to know?"

"Anything?" I started gentle and open-ended..

"S.E.A. was founded about fifty year ago by a group of marine biologists. The first twenty or so years it was operating, it mainly focused on cleaning up the water, limiting fishing of endangered species, yadda yadda, that kinda shit. When I jumped on board, I was only a twenty year old . Impressionable. Eager to prove myself." He looked out the window and sighed.

"I'm sorry if this brings up bad memories, but I need to know." I prompted him to continue.

"I did whatever they asked me to. At first, I cleaned the floors and brought them coffee, but I loved it. I got to observe marine experiments and see first-hand how my seniors ran things." He grunted and adjusted in his seat. "I was thirty or so when I put on my first assignment. Investigating fish patterns. See, the fish tended to stay away from certain spots in the water around and during the full moon. Two of the younger guys, Grisha Yaeger and Carl Alert, said it was mermaids."

His eyes slowly shifted over to me as he said my father's name.

"And they were right?" I tried to distract him.

"Mmmhmmm. More right than anyone bargained for." He paused for a moment. "The older members and I mostly ignored them, thinking them fools. We made jokes about them in private."

"How did they convince everyone they were right?"

"There wasn't any 'convincing' to do. They gave us hard evidence and we had no choice but to accept it. You see, Arlert was gifted with technology. Grisha was gifted in the medical field. It was a pairing that made them dangerous. Arlert invented an underwater picture device and installed it near the place where the fish avoided during the full moon-"

"-And you were able to see the mermaids?" I interrupted

"Yes. It was in grainy black and white, but what we saw...it wasn't human. The organization erupted into chaos. Some turned against Yaeger and Arlert, saying they had fabricated it somehow. Some turned to religion, saying that God must have transformed some holy people into mermaids to survive the flood of Noah, and other saying that their God would never make such monstrosities. Most of us, like me, just watched and waited.

"Alert and Yaeger continued gathering evidence, until eventually it was just too much to ignore. Yaeger was the one who came up with the plan: We catch one, contain it, and dissect it. Arlert and Yaeger were each given teams to complete their part of the plan. They were promoted over me in just two short weeks." He shook his head.

"I work for ten fucking years in order to just start doing actual work and then Yaeger and Arlert come along and blow everyone out of the water." He frowned. "I mean, they were right, but I'm still bitter."

"Is that why you don't like Mr. Arlert and my d- Grisha Yeager?" I asked, stumbling over my words a bit.

"No. That's why I envied them. Not why I hated and still continue to hate them." He took another sip from his flask. "Before I tell the rest of the story, remember that this was during the time when I was doing whatever my superiors asked of me, no matter how awful it was."

He paused, so I filled in the silence. "I'll remember that."

"Yeager and Arlert... they presented their evidence to us and told us that mermaids were monsters. The fish could obviously sense that a much more dangerous predator was around them and hauled ass. The obvious question then was: How dangerous are they? Arlert and Yeager told us that the mermaids were capable of murdering humans. That they had the power to lure humans into the water where they ate them alive as they drowned. Arlert in particular made all these connections to old dusty books, like _The Odyssey. _He was convinced that mermaids had been around for as long as humans, and these stories were warnings. We would be lured into the water and eaten if we didn't stop our ears up with beeswax or some shit. " He shook his head and was quiet. I felt that he wanted to continue, but something was stopping him.

I didn't attempt to fill the silence just yet. I clenched my jaw and tried not to picture Levi eating people. He had oh so easily offered to eat Jean. He said he had eaten people before…I shivered at the thought. Being near Levi was like a mouse playing with a snake. Only the mouse loves the snake. What a fool mouse.

"And… was Arlert and… Yeager right?" I had to ask. "Are mermaids dangerous?"

"Not sure…" He grunted and shifted in his seat. "Why are you digging all this up, anyway? You said it was personal. What's so personal about it?"

We looked into each other's eyes, each knowing that the other knew something that wasn't being said. If he stonewalled me, I would at a dead end. I would have to try and hunt down that journal Armin was talking about. But if I needed more, or needed something explained… I would need Dot's help. It wasn't like I could just go to my father or to Armin's grandpa. I would have to maintain a positive connection with him if I was going to get anywhere. I had to give him little something.

"I...may have…," I took a deep breath, "possibly...seen a merman."

"Uh-huh." He gave me a disbelieving look. "You know people may have possibly done lots of shit."

"Fine. I met a merman." I briefly considered telling him everything, minus the gay, but I wasn't sure.

He was being a little too forthright with me. A few moments after meeting me, he discloses that he saw proof that mermaids were real. Something wasn't completely adding up. I shook it off, attributing it to his probable loneliness and his definite love and trust in his sister.

"Where?" He slugged back another gulp of whatever was in his flask.

"The water near my house."

"Okay. You live near the shore then? Near the cove, maybe?"

"Yeah. I'm just trying to get information on mermaids because, honestly, this is incredible." I hoped that would get him talking like before.

"Yeah, kid. That's what we all said." He paused. "What was it you were asking before? Are they dangerous?"

I nodded.

"Eh. The 'official' word, handed down from Yaeger, is that, yes, they are all dangerous monsters hellbent on dragging us all into the murky depths and down satan's throat or some bullshit like that. If you ask me… and I guess you are... not really." He made a little shrug motion when he finished.

"Why do you say that?"

"I think they're kind of like humans: some are dangerous and some are not. There...there was this one mermaid...she wouldn't harm a fly. Just looked around all scared and shook…" His eyes unfocused and I thought maybe he was having a flashback of Krista.

"The one with the pink tail?" I asked softly.

"Dorothy tell you about that, too?" He smiled softly. "She always was a talker."

"I would really like to hear the story of the girl with the pink tail, if you don't mind." I gave him a push. I could tell he was reluctant.

"Just remember that this was part of the time when I was doing whatever I was told. That goes double for the pink tail. I was so pissed that Yaeger and Arlet- my juniors - had surpassed me. I may have not made a big discovery but I was going to work harder than both of them combined, dammit. My boss told me to make coffee, so I made coffee. My boss told me to develop the picture Arlert's camera took, so I developed the pictures. My boss told me to hold her down while Yaeger cut her open. I held her down while Yaeger sliced into her." He pursed his thin lips, uttered something under his breath. I dare not interrupt.

"It all started when Yaeger's camera found that a single pink tailed female inhabited a cave close to us. She was small, vulnerable. There never seemed to be a male around. She was our target. Arlert made the net. Me and couple other mid-level employees monitored the cameras. I remember Jack, a buddy of mine, shaking me awake. I had fallen asleep watching the feed. Dull work. 'There she is!' He said. We watched her swim over to the net, looking at it all curiously. We watched her trigger it and then struggle. She thrashed around - You ever see a fish pulled out of the water? How it wiggles and shit?" He looked up at me, but continued talking without needing a response.

"Course you have, you live here, don't ya? That's the way she struggled in the net. We told Arlert and Yaeger and they went out to retrieve her. Me and Jack, we came along, armed. They told us to shoot anyone who tried to stop us. Told us that if anyone saw us, we had to shoot them, too. Not even if they were trying to stop us. Yaeger said we were onto something big, and went on about how it wasn't time to unveil it to the world.

When we pulled her up, she was strangely immobile. We plopped her into the boat and save the net had gotten sucked up into one of her gills. Our fault for using such small netting. She couldn't breath and had apparently passed out. Yaeger said that if she died half of his job was done for him. Arlert was pissed cause he designed a state of the art tank and wanted to observe her before Yaeger cut into her. They argued the whole way back.

I was excited, yeah, like all the rest of us were. I was also scared. She looked like she was young. Not a child, but young. Blonde hair, blue eyes. Looked normal enough, like one of the girls you see wearing a pretty flower dress to sunday school. Except for the tail, of course. I felt protective over her. I knew Yaeger was going to do something fucked up to her and it made me sick to my stomach. Yaeger." He took another big swig from the flask.

It made me uncomfortable to hear about the awful things my dad had done, but I'm sure it wasn't even comparable to how uncomfortable Dot must have been. To see it firsthand...

"We loaded her into Arlert's tank. It seemed innocent enough at first. We put different fruits into the water to see what she would and wouldn't eat. Arlert chucked in some flesh off of a fresh dead body he 'legally obtained from the proper channels', whatever that means. She swam to the other side of the tank, shaking and refusing to go near the flesh. Blood clouded the water and she constantly wiped at her gills to keep from breathing it in. Can't even imagine….

Arlert was pissed that she didn't go all piranha on the flesh. He wanted something to back his claims up. He poked at her with a stick out of sheer frustration. Swimming away from him meant swimming toward the flesh, so she just curled up in the middle and shook. Made me sick to my stomach, but if I wanted to stay, I had to keep quiet.

I regret not stepping in sooner. I thought about saying something, but then Arlert cleaned out the water and gave her more fruit. I hoped maybe he had worked the meanness out of himself.

She occasionally looked like she was saying something. I thought about opening the top and seeing if she could talk, but I didn't. Not yet, anyway. I just observed and follow orders. About a week after the flesh-in-the-tank incident, Arlert got frustrated again. Visitors had been filtering in throughout the week, approved by your - Yaeger and paying a hefty sum. Arlert hated it, but it funded his research so he stood it for as long as he could.

I guess he just couldn't stand it anymore. He got out the table and demanded that Yaeger finish up. They fought. Arlert won. Yaeger and Arlert and some strong employees, me included, strapped her down to the table. Her pink tail was solid muscle and broke through the straps easily.

She started wiggling, trying to get away. I don't know where she thought she was gonna go, a literal fish out of water. She thrashed about and slapped her tail around. Yaeger and Arlert yelled at us to hold her down. A couple guys sprinted into action, holding her tail down with all their might. Me? I was frozen. Not because there was a fucking mermaid flapping around in front of me, but because she _spoke_." He looked up at me, checking my reaction. "Your merman speak to you?"

"Y-yeah." I had to clear my throat.

"Jolting, isn't it? You don't expect a fish to talk. Or maybe you do because of the human half, but you just don't want them to."

"Yeah." I didn't know what else to say.

"You wanna know what she said?"

"Yes."

"'Please don't hurt me.'" He looked out of the window. "Her face was all twisted up, gills moving frantically like a human hyperventilating. She just kept screaming that. Her voice was shaky, but reminded me, again, of just a regular girl, the kind that might wear a flower dress to sunday school.

Yaeger barked at us all to help him. I finally got ahold of myself and pushed down on her bottom fin. It was slippery, but I got handled it. She was screaming for us to not hurt her or screaming in pain and there was nothing in between. Yaeger injected her with a muscle relaxer, and she slowed down. She still fought, but you could tell she was weak, in a haze. It made it all the more….disgusting, what we did to her.

Yaeger cut open her belly, no pain meds or nothing. He was looking for her eggs, and since she wasn't build with an...entrance, we had to go in digging for her ovaries. We didn't know it at the time, but Yaeger and Arlert wanted to try and make more of them, simply for studying. If they got her eggs, they'd have an endless supply if they got to a merman and cut him open too.

Fucking disgusting, taking her babies from her. But that's what we did. I held onto her fin, listening to her scream and occasioning handing Yaeger objects. It took hours. He got her ovaries, some teeth, hair, nails, bone marrow… anything that might help him find mermaid stem cells or make more mermaids, or find mermaid dna…

We were all covered in her blood and shaking by the end of it. Except for doctor Yaeger. He tossed her back into the tank, wiped his hands, and went off to play with his goodies.

That night- Hey, kid? You okay? Eren?" He leaned toward me.

"I'm fine."

"You sure, kid? You look a little green in the gills." He barked out one, solid, harsh laugh.

"Fine." A lie, of course. My father did this? It was almost unimaginable.

"We can stop-"

"Please continue."

"Alright, kid. Where was I? Oh. That night I went to check on her. I opened up the top of the tank. She scurried away from me, clutching her stomach. I talked to her in a gentle voice, asking if she was okay. She eventually came up to the top so I could hear her. She begged me to take her back to the ocean. I told her I didn't know how to get her there. All the equipment we used to get her here was Arlert's doing. All under lock and key. She begged me to figure it out.

It took days. Days I had to sit there and watch her be poked and prodded at. Yeager was busy with his new toys, but Arlert still didn't have anything. He knew she could talk now so he opened the top and sat there, questioning her. She refused to speak to him. He got out his stick and poked at her.

I couldn't stand it. Finally I got a plan to get her out of there. I opened the top and asked if she could breathe without water. She said all she needed were her gills unblocked. She could breath in air and water. That was the only thing I needed.

I am kinda proud of myself for getting her out of there. I didn't need fancy machines. I didn't need a little crane or whatever to hoist her up and I didn't need a fancy transportation tank in a moving van. I needed a tarp and my trusty old pick up." He laughed. I smiled, glad the story was turning around.

"Yaeger was there that night, so I told him Arlert called in with some emergency two towns over. He dashed out. I told Jack I was getting her out and if he didn't join me, I'd put him in the tank. He agreed to look the other way. I backed my pickup back to the door and put her on the surgery table. I wheeled her out of there and slid her into the back. She was extremely uncomfortable, so I filled the back up with a hose. And there we went. Tarp, hose, pick up, mermaid and all. I backed right up the shore, not even caring if I never got my pickup out of there again. Opened the back and she splashed out with all the water.

She wasn't in the actual ocean yet, like a beached whale. I dug at the sand around her and she pulled herself onto shore. The closer she got, the easier it got. Finally, she shot away." He gave me a sad smile. "You know, I half expected her to pop back up, say thanks. But she didn't. I guess that's for the best. She needed to get to safety as soon as possible."

"What happened when everyone found out what you did?" I asked.

"Well, I didn't even think about denying it because I was on duty and my pickup was still busted down at the shore. I got too close and the damn hunk of junk was stuck in sand and I didn't have the energy to get it out. I didn't try to run or anything. I just let the chips fall where they may.

I was fired, of course. Arlert threatened legal action because she was technically non-human property of S.E. shut that down saying if they got legal involved, the whole thing would blow up.

I stayed in town a bit longer, just waiting to see if maybe something else would happen. I guess she warned the others, because my friends told me the feeds dried up real fast after I released her. It was for the best I suppose. I joined the military. I didn't like it but it was a job. I came back here when I got all old. I guess that brings us up to speed." He looked at me intensely.

"Thank you for sharing."

"You better go, kid. Three o'clock the nurse comes in here, sees if I'm dead yet." He didn't break eye contact with me.

"Okay." I stood around awkwardly. "Bye." As I turned, he called out again.

"Two pieces of advice: Stay away from that merman. He's trouble."

"Okay." I definitely wasn't doing that. "What's the second piece of advice?"

"Don't tell your father you know anything. He's a real bastard." Dot grinned at me. "No offense."

"I..um…" I stuttered.

"Look kid, you may take after your mother, but I can still see Grisha in your face." He shook his head. "If you weren't his kid, I wouldn't have told you all this."

"I…," I straightened up. "I can handle myself."

"Can you handle your father, though?"

"I haven't even seen my father in months. Don't worry." With that, I walked out. He let me go.

I had something new to tell everyone. I just didn't think it was the right time. I couldn't trust Levi's reaction… he might not want to see me anymore. He didn't seem like the type to hold the father's sins against the son, but with what happened to his sister… Mikasa would need to hear about Levi for the whole story to make sense. Armin...Armin wasn't a good option, either. I would just keep this to myself for now… figure out what to tell who and when…

One thing I knew for sure was that I needed a nap.


End file.
